Effect of feeding on glomerular filtration rate and proteinuria in conscious aging rats

Food intake increases glomerular filtration and proteinuria in adult rats. That this postprandial hyperfiltration could be age dependent was investigated in 3-, 10-, 20-, and 30-mo-old rats. Glomerular filtration rate and protein excretion were measured in fed or 24 h fasted conscious animals. In the 3-mo-old rats food ingestion increased renal filtration by 45% from 1.17 +/- 0.08 to 1.73 +/- 0.11 ml.min-1.g kidney wt-1 (n = 6). As the animals became older, the differences between fed and fasted periods became smaller: in 30-mo-old rats glomerular filtration rate was 0.85 +/- 0.03 and 1.01 +/- 0.06 ml.min-1.g kidney wt-1 (n = 6) in fasted and fed conditions, respectively. Proteinuria, which was mainly albuminuria, increased slightly with age and was more markedly reduced by acute food restriction in the 30-mo-old than in the 3-mo-old rats. Because the renin-angiotensin system activity decreases with age, its role in postprandial hyperfiltration was assessed by measuring glomerular filtration in 3-mo-old animals whose angiotensin II converting-enzyme activity was chronically inhibited by daily administration of perindopril. In such experimental conditions there was no longer a difference in renal filtration between fed and fasted rats. These data indicate that 1) postprandial increase in glomerular filtration is to some extent related to the renin-angiotensin system activity; 2) short-term reduction of food intake reduces proteinuria even in senescent rats, although the feeding dependence of the glomerular filtration is blunted with age.