Renal Micropuncture Study of the Development of Anuria in the Rat with Mercury-induced Acute Renal Failure*

Abstract

Acute renal failure in man may result from such factors as trauma, transfusion accidents, sep- sis, burns, and acute poisoning with carbon tetra- chloride, ethylene glycol, or mercury. Regardless of the etiology and despite marked variability in the histologic appearance of the kidneys of indi- vidual cases, most patients with acute renal fail- ure develop oliguria or anuria together with evi- dence of impaired tubular function. The cause of this decrease in urine volume, however, has not been well defined. Some theories commonly conjured to explain the oliguria of acute renal insufficiency stem largely from pathological find- ings rather than from functional studies in vivo. Of these findings, three have been stressed as pos- sibly being responsible for oliguria: tubular ob- struction by cellular debris (1-3), tubular com- pression by interstitial edema (4-7), and "pas- sive backflow" of glomerular filtrate through holes in the wall of the tubule (6, 8, 9). We have at- tempted to determine the possible role of these fac- tors in mercury-induced acute renal failure in the rat.