Renal tubular protein handling in experimental renal disease.

Competitive inhibition of renal tubular transport occurs between low- and high-molecular-weight proteins following intravenous infusion, but this relationship is less clear following de novo glomerular or renal tubular injury. The present study evaluated renal lysozyme and albumin handling following renal tubular injury induced by both low- and high-dose mercuric chloride (0.5 and 2.0 mg/kg) and maleic acid (50 and 400 mg/kg), and following glomerular injury induced by puromycin aminonucleoside (5 mg/100 g) or Adriamycin (5 mg/kg). Subtle renal tubular injury induced only mild isolated albuminuria, while severe tubular injury caused dramatic lysozymuria and moderate albuminuria. However, increased filtration of albumin in these models of glomerular injury did not inhibit lysozyme transport.