Post-ischemic acute renal failure protects proximal tubules from O2 deprivation injury, possibly by inducing uremia

Post-ischemic acute renal failure protects proximal tubules from O 2 deprivation injury, possibly by inducing uremia. Rats within the early maintenance phase of post-ischemic acute renal failure (ARF) can resist additional ischemic insults. This study assessed whether this protection exists directly at the tubular cell level, and if so, whether it is a consequence of prior cell injury (for example, due to heat-shock protein synthesis; HSP), or if it arises in response to reductions in functional renal mass and/or the uremic environment. Rats were subjected to either 15 or 35 minutes of unilateral or bilateral renal ischemia, and after 15 minutes to 24 hours of reflow, proximal tubular segments (PTS) were isolated for study. Their viability following oxygenation and hypoxic/ reoxygenation injury (H/R) was tested (LDH release). The influence of uremia/reduced renal mass was determined by studying PTS extracted 24 hours after 1 1/2 nephrectomy, and by determining whether PTS exposure to a "uremic milieu" (urine addition) blocks H/R damage. HSP effects were gauged by correlating renal cortical HSP-70 expression with degrees of in vitro protection, and by ascertaining whether in vivo hyperthermia (42°C; 15 min) mitigates subsequent PTS H/R damage. Results were compared with those obtained from normal PTS. The in vivo experimental protocols did not substantially alter PTS isolation or their viability during oxygenation. Fifteen minutes of ischemia induced neither azotemia nor PTS cytoprotection. In contrast, 35 minutes of ischemia conferred marked protection against subsequent H/R, but only when azotemia was permitted to develop (protection seen after 24 hr, but not at 4hr of reflow; protection abrogated by retention of 1 normal kidney). Renal failure in the absence of tubular necrosis (11 1/2 uninephrectomy) protected PTS from H/R damage. Adding urine directly to PTS also lessened H/R injury, independent of pH or osmotic effects. Post-ischemic HSP synthesis correlated poorly with cytoresistance, and hyperthermia-induced HSP expression exerted only a trivial protective effect. These results indicate that: (a) post-ischemic ARF directly protects tubular cells against subsequent O 2 deprivation injury; and (b) this appears to result not from cell injury per se , but rather, by exposure to a uremic environment.