Effect of lithium on catecholamine-induced antidiuresis and cyclic AMP in dog kidneys

Patients treated with lithium salt have an inability to concentrate urine, possible due to the inhibition of the antidiuretic effect of vasopressin. Since beta adrenergic stimulation also induces antidiuresis, a possible effect of lithium on the catecholamine-induced antidiuresis was investigated in dog kidneys. The urinary concentrating ability induced by the iv injection of isoproterenol 0.1 mug/kg was markedly inhibited in the lithium-treated animals (plasma lithium 1.13 plus or minus 0.10 mM). The increase of cyclic AMP concentration by 1 muM isoproterenol was also significantly less in the renal medullary slices obtained from the lithium-treated animals than in those obtained from the control animals. These findings suggest that the inability to concentrate urine in the patients treated with lithium salt is probably due to the inhibition of the antidiuretic effect of catecholamine as well as that of vasopressin; and the inhibitory mechanism of lithium on the catecholamine-induced antidiuresis is possibly through the inhibition of the catecholamine-dependent cycle AMP system in renal medulla.