Compensatory renal hypertrophy. II. During contralateral hydronephrosis. An experimental study in dogs.

Compensatory renal hypertrophy and hyperfunction during contralateral chronic hydronephrosis was investigated. It was found that graded impairment of the function in hydronephrotic kidneys causes proportional compensatory hypertrophy and hyperfunction in the contralateral normal kidney. The functional pattern both "per kidney" and "per nephron" was the same in the kidneys investigated here and in kidneys where contralateral nephrectomy had been performed, but whereas a decreased ability to concentrate the urine maximally and to reabsorb sodium was encountered in the latter, this could not be detected in this study. On the other hand, a decreased COSM in the diseased kidney did not stimulate a corresponding increase in the contralateral kidney as did unilateral nephrectomy. Adaptive and growth dependent changes in compensatory renal hypertrophy are discussed.