Altered renal fibronectin excretion in early adriamycin nephrosis of rats

The anticancer drug adriamycin (ADR) induces severe nonselective glomerular proteinuria in rats. The proliferation of the glomerular mesangium in chronic ADR nephrosis suggests a disturbed metabolism of extracellular matrix proteins. In the present study the structural protein fibronectin was analyzed by immunological methods in urine and plasma in two rat strains after a single injection of 5 mg of ADR/kg b.wt. After ADR administration the excretion of 220 kd-plasma fibronectin, identified by its electrophoretic mobility and Western blotting, increased. This was confirmed by quantitative measurement (ELISA) of total urinary fibronectin (ADR-treated Munich Wistar Frömter rats: 85.4 +/- 49.5 ng/hr, N = 31; controls: 1.7 +/- 0.7 ng/hr, N = 26; day 7 after ADR injection). Control urines contained distinct fragments of fibronectin with a molecular weight range of 40 to 60 kd. It is suggested that these fragments did not originate from plasma inasmuch as only little correspondence between the fibronectin patterns of urine and plasma was found, and also because in ADR-treated rats the excretion of the fibronectin fragments decreased from day 4 of ADR administration. The data suggest that the urinary fibronectin fragments are released from cellular fibronectin during the normal catabolism of the glomerular extracellular matrices, and that ADR interferes in the metabolism of matrix components. Only as a consequence of an enhanced glomerular permeability is plasma fibronectin excreted in ADR-treated rats.