Abstract
After subtotal nephrectomy was carried out in young mice and rats, the remaining renal tissue became hyperplastic and adhesive glomerular lesions developed in many animals. Similar lesions have been described in animals in which hypertension has been experimentally induced, and in those human beings in whom renal failure is accompanied by hypertension. In the mice, hypertension did not develop and in the rats, although hypertension developed after simple nephrectomy, the lesions still appeared when hypertension was prevented by bilateral adrenalectomy.
It is concluded that reduction in renal mass alone may damage the glomeruli, possibly because of increased tension in the glomerular capillary walls which is due in turn to increased pressure within the capillaries and to an increase in the radius of the capillaries resulting from compensatory hypertrophy.