[Extravascular transfer of fluids and proteins induced by endothelin in the binephrectomized rat]

To test the possibility that endothelin affects extracellular fluid partition between plasma and interstitium, we compared the effects of endothelin and vehicule in euvolemic binephrectomized anesthetized rats by measuring changes in hematocrit and plasma protein concentration. Forty-five minutes infusion of endothelin (25 ng/kg/min) induced a progressive increase in blood pressure by 1.7 +/- 1.3, 6.8 +/- 1.5 and 12.1 +/- 2.1% at 15, 30 and 45 min respectively from a basal value of 99 +/- 5 mmHg. Hematocrit increased by 8.0 +/- 0.6% (p less than 0.001) after 45 min of infusion, while the vehicle had no significant effect (+ 1.7 +/- 0.7%). The same increase in hematocrit was observed in binephrectomized and splenectomized rats. The calculated loss of plasma volume during endothelin infusion was 13.1 +/- 0.9% as compared to 2.1 +/- 1.2% in rats receiving the vehicle. Plasma protein concentration increased by only 4.2 +/- 0.6% suggesting an extravasation of proteins. To document and localize an alteration in vascular leak of proteins induced by endothelin, albumin-bound Evans Blue (EB) extravasation was measured spectrophotometrically in different tissues after extraction by formamide. Endothelin increased vascular permeation of EB-albumin in skeletal and cardiac muscle, intestine and mesentery. No change was observed in brain, liver, spleen as compared to rats receiving the vehicle. In addition, endothelin infusion elicits a three fold increase of the plasma immunoreactive atrial natriuretic peptide (ir-ANP) concentration (from 196 +/- 50 to 722 +/- 203 pg/ml; p less than 0.02).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)