Effect of antidiuretic hormone on renal organic osmolytes in Brattleboro rats

Homozygous Brattleboro rats were used to study the effect of antidiuretic hormone (ADH) on organic osmolytes, which have been shown to be involved in the cellular osmoadaptation in renal inner medulla. With the use of enzymatic spectrophotometric methods, glycerophosphorylcholine, sorbitol, and inositol were determined in kidney sections from papillary tip (IM3) to cortex. Compared with normal rat kidneys, IM3 of untreated Brattleboro rats (urine osmolality 132 mosmol/kg) were sorbitol depleted (16 +/- 1 vs. 371 +/- 37 mumol/g protein) and glycerophosphorylcholine was reduced to 20% (131 +/- 16 vs. 658 +/- 52 mumol/g protein). In contrast inositol was not changed (147 +/- 25 vs. 177 +/- 29 mumol/g protein). Similar effects were obtained in all medullary sections. Continuous treatment with ADH increased urine osmolality already after 5 h but renal glycerophosphorylcholine and sorbitol content only after 24 h. Normal osmolyte levels were reached after 3 days of ADH treatment when urine osmolality was 1,595 mosmol/kg. Inositol did not exhibit comparable changes during ADH treatment. The present results indicate that ADH, possibly by increasing interstitial tonicity, leads to increased glycerophosphorylcholine and sorbitol, but not inositol, contents.