Chemical and dimensional chracterization of the renal countercurrent system in mice

Impaired solute accumulation in inner medulla of Clcnk1-/- mice kidney

The CLC-K1 chloride channel is a kidney-specific CLC chloride channel expressed in the thin ascending limb of Henle's loop (tAL). Recently, we determined that Clcnk1-/- mice show nephrogenic diabetes insipidus (NDI). To investigate the pathogenesis of impaired urinary concentrating ability, we analyzed renal functions of Clcnk1-/- mice in more detail. The osmolar clearance-to-creatinine clearance ratio was not significantly different between Clcnk1+/- and Clcnk1+/+ mice. Fractional excretion of sodium, chloride, and urea was also not significantly affected in Clcnk1-/- mice. These results indicate that the polyuria observed in Clcnk1-/- mice was water diuresis and not osmotic diuresis. The papillary osmolarity in Clcnk1-/- mice was significantly lower than that in Clcnk1+/+ mice under a hydrated condition, and it did not increase even after water deprivation. Sodium and chloride contents in the inner medulla in Clcnk1-/- mice were at about one-half the levels observed in Clcnk1+/+ mice. Furthermore, the accumulation of urea was also impaired in Clcnk1-/- mice, suggesting that the overall countercurrent system was impaired by a defect of its single component, chloride transport in the tAL. The aldose reductase mRNA abundance in Clcnk1-/- mice was decreased, further evincing that inner medullary tonicity is decreased in Clcnk1-/- mice. We concluded that NDI in Clcnk1-/- mice resulted from an impairment in the generation of inner medullary hypertonicity by a dysfunction of the countercurrent systems.

Effects of water deprivation and deamino [8-D-arginine] vasopressin on [14C]2-deoxyglucose uptake by the hypothalamo-hypophysial system in mice with hereditary nephrogenic diabetes insipidus

The effects of water deprivation and the injection of deamino [8-D-arginine] vasopressin (dDAVP) on the metabolic activity of the hypothalamo-neurohypophysial neurones of mice with inherited nephrogenic diabetes insipidus (DI +/+ Severe) have been investigated by quantitative autoradiography using the [14C]2-deoxyglucose (2-DG) technique. The relative metabolic activities (rma) of the paraventricular nuclei (PVN) and pars nervosa (PN) in severely diabetic mice were not significantly different from the rma of the PVN and PN in Non-severe or Normal mice, but the rma of the pars distalis (PD) was greater in the Severe mice than in the other two strains. Water deprivation (4-5 h) significantly increased the rma of the PVN and PN in Severe mice compared with those in Non-severe mice that had been similarly deprived of water. The increased rma of the PVN and PN produced by water deprivation in Severe mice was not reduced to normal by injection of dDAVP. The injection of dDAVP alone had no effect on the rma of the PVN or PN, but dDAVP injection alone, water deprivation alone, or both treatments combined decreased the rma of the PD in Severe mice. Neither the supraoptic nuclei (SON) nor any of the other 19 brain areas studied were affected, in terms of rma, by either water deprivation, injection of dDAVP, or both.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Vasopressin and ethanol preference. II. Altered preference in two strains of diabetes insipidus rats and nephrogenic diabetes insipidus mice

In the first paper of this series, the influence of a single gene (di) for vasopressin deficiency on ethanol intake in rats was demonstrated. We studied preference for concentrations of ethanol between 2.2 and 10 percent versus tap water in Brattleboro rats homozygous for diabetes insipidus (di/di), heterozygous (di/+) or normal (+/+). The di/di rats, totally lacking in vasopressin, had greatly reduced preference scores for all concentrations of ethanol. Their intake of ethanol (g/day) was higher than heterozygotes or normals, but only when 2.2 percent ethanol was offered as a choice. Treatment with vasopressin or related peptides restored ethanol drinking to normal but also corrected water balance. In the experiments reported here, Roman High Avoidance (RHA) rats of three genotypes (+/+, di/+, and di/di) were also tested for ethanol intake and preference with similar but not identical results. Thus, the effects of the di gene are independent of the genetic background on which it is placed to at least some extent. Chlorothiazide, a drug unrelated to vasopressin, also normalized ethanol drinking and corrected water balance in di/di rats. In nephrogenic diabetes insipidus mice, there was a strong negative correlation between severity of polydipsia and preference for ethanol. Thus, no paradigm tested was effective in dissociating polydipsia from reduced ethanol preference and increased ethanol intake. While these results cannot exclude a possible regulatory role for endogenous vasopressin in ethanol preference drinking, they more strongly suggest that reduced preference for ethanol and increased ethanol intake are epiphenomena secondary to a polydipsic state.

Cellular action of vasopressin in medullary tubules of mice with hereditary nephrogenic diabetes insipidus

Our previous studies (1974. J. Clin. Invest.54: 753-762.) suggested that impaired metabolism of cyclic AMP (cAMP) may be involved in the renal unresponsiveness to vasopressin (VP) in mice with hereditary nephrogenic diabetes insipidus (NDI). To localize such a defect to specific segments of the nephron, we studied the activities of VP-sensitive adenylate cyclase, cAMP phosphodiesterase (cAMP-PDIE), as well as accumulation of cAMP in medullary collecting tubules (MCT) and in medullary thick ascending limbs of Henle's loop (MAL) microdissected from control mice with normal concentrating ability and from mice with hereditary NDI. Adenylate cyclase activity stimulated by VP or by NaF was only slightly lower (-24%) in MCT from NDI mice, compared with controls. In MAL of NDI mice, basal, VP-sensitive, and NaF-sensitive adenylate cyclase was markedly (> -60%) lower compared with MAL of controls. The specific activity of cAMP-PDIE was markedly higher in MCT of NDI mice compared with controls, but was not different between MAL of control and NDI mice. Under present in vitro conditions, incubation of intact MCT from control mice with VP caused a striking increase in cAMP levels (>10), but VP failed to elicit a change in cAMP levels in MCT from NDI mice. When the cAMP-PDIE inhibitor 1-methyl-3-isobutyl xanthine (MIX) was added to the above incubation, VP caused a significant increase in cAMP levels in MCT from both NDI mice and control mice. Under all tested conditions, cAMP levels in MCT of NDI mice were lower than corresponding values in control MCT. Under the present experimental setting, VP and other stimulating factors (MIX, cholera toxin) did not change cAMP levels in MAL from either control mice or from NDI mice. The results of the present in vitro experiments suggest that the functional unresponsiveness of NDI mice to VP is perhaps mainly the result of the inability of collecting tubules to increase intracellular cAMP levels in response to VP. In turn, this inability to increase cAMP in response to VP is at least partly the result of abnormally high activity of cAMP-PDIE, a somewhat lower activity of VP-sensitive adenylate cyclase in MCT of NDI mice, and perhaps to a deficiency of some other as yet unidentified factors. The possible contribution of low VP-sensitive adenylate cyclase activity in MAL of NDI mice to the renal resistance to VP remains to be defined.

Genetic analysis of the nephrogenic diabetes insipidus defect in SWV mice

Females of the SWV mouse strain had an age-dependent nephrogenic diabetes insipidus. The distribution of water intakes in the F1, F2 and backcross to each parental strain indicated that at least the polydipsia was determined by a few major dominant genes; rather than by a polygenic system. The Smirnof and chi square analyses revealed more than one major gene was involved. A hypothesis was presented that there are two dominant genes (one fully dominant and one codominant) which may be linked. The expression of these major genes was influenced multiplicatively by environmental factors and the water intakes approached a continuous distribution. The defect was sex influenced: SWV males had only a very mild urine concentrating defect but the reciprocal crosses showed no X-linkage. The kidney weight of the SWV females correlated significantly (P less than 0.05) with the polydipsia in the F1, BC SWV and F2 progeny and the use of both traits provided a qualitative measure for classification. The polydipsia and enlarged kidneys probably represent pleiotropy.

Cellular action of antidiuretic hormone in mice with inherited vasopressin-resistant urinary concentrating defects

Previous work has suggested that resistance to vasopressin in two strains of mice with nephrogenic deficiency of urinary concentration may entail a defect in the action of vasopressin at the cellular level. Several components involved in this action were therefore examined in vitro in renal medullary tissues from control mice (genotype VII +/+) and two genotypes with mild diabetes insipidus (DI +/+ nonsevere) and marked (DI +/+ severe) vasopressin-resistant concentrating defects. No significant differences were found in the affinity of adenylate cyclase for [8-arginine]-vasopressin (AVP), tested over a range of hormone concentration from 10(-10) to 10(-5) M. However, maximal stimulation of adenylate cyclase by saturating concentrations of AVP (intrinsic activity) was markedly decreased from control values in DI +/+ severe mice, and decreased to a lesser extent in DI +/+ nonsevere animals. A significant correlation was found between the activity of adenylate cyclase maximally stimulated by AVP in a given genotype, and the urine osmolality in the same animals. There were no significant differences in maximal stimulation of renal medullary adenylate cyclase in control experiments: not when stimulated nonspecifically by sodium fluoride, nor when stimulated by AVP in tissues from rats with induced water diuresis as compared to antidiuretic rats. Nor were there significant differences between VII +/+ and DI +/+ severe mice in the activity of renal cortical adenylate cyclase, either basal or when stimulated by parathyroid hormone. Furthermore, the abnormal genotypes did not differ significantly from control mice in the renal medullary activities of cyclic AMP phosphodiesterase or cyclic AMP-dependent protein kinase, nor in the content of microtubular subunits (assessed as colchicinebinding protein). The results are compatible with the view that impaired stimulation of renal medullary adenylate cyclase by vasopressin might be the sole or contributing cause of the vasopressin-resistant concentrating defect in the diseased mice; however, a causal relationship has not yet been proved.