Hypoxic preconditioning enhances renal superoxide dismutase levels in rats

Renal ischaemia releases reactive oxygen species (ROS) in the kidneys. We hypothesized that the kidneys are more resistant to the insult of ROS in chronically hypoxic rats. We thus compared rats kept at sea level (SL) and those that had been adapted to hypoxia (hypoxia adapted, HA) by exposure to an altitude of 5500 m in an altitude chamber for 15 h day-1 for 4 weeks. Xanthine (X, 0.75 mg kg-1) and xanthine oxidase (XO, 24.8 mU kg-1) were injected intrarenally. A lucigenin-enhanced chemiluminescence method was employed to detect the amount of free radicals in renal venous blood samples and on the kidney surface. In the renal venous blood samples, 26.05 (+/- 4.36) x 104 and 10.98 (+/- 1.79) x 104 counts were detected in the SL and HA rats, respectively, after X-XO treatment; these figures were significantly different. On the kidney surface of the SL rats, the free radical count amounted to 12.77 (+/- 1.64) x 104, while that in the HA rats was 8.47 (+/- 0.42) x 104; these figures were also significantly different. There was a significant increase in urine volume and urinary excretion of Na+, K+ and protein after X-XO administration in both groups of rats. However, the effect was greater for the SL rats than for the HA rats. The lipid peroxidation of the kidneys was not significantly different in the two groups of rats. Finally, we found that the activity of superoxide dismutase (SOD) and SOD mRNA were higher in the renal tissue of HA rats. We conclude that the renal response to free radicals is attenuated after chronic hypoxia in rats, and that SOD might play an important role in protecting HA rats from oxidative stress.