Effect of intermittent feeding on renal hemodynamics in conscious rats

The hemodynamic influences of many forms of dietary restriction have not been studied in the conscious rat. To examine the effect of one regimen of dietary restriction, alternate-day feeding, on renal hemodynamics, we performed 56 clearance studies in 20 unanesthetized, previously catheterized male Sprague-Dawley rats at mean age 30 wk. Group 1 rats (n = 10) were given standard chow only on alternate days for 25 wk and then studied after feeding and after fasting days, whereas group 2 rats (n = 10) were fed ad libitum during the same period and then studied randomly. In group 1, glomerular filtration rate (GFR, clearance of inulin) and renal blood flow [RBF, clearance of PAH/(1 - hematocrit)] increased 23 and 19%, respectively, after feeding days compared with fasting days (GFR, 4.25 vs. 3.47 ml/min, P less than 0.005; RBF, 22.2 vs. 18.6 ml/min, P less than 0.025). After feeding, mean arterial pressure and plasma protein concentration were unchanged, hematocrit increased slightly, and fractional excretion of sodium rose from 0.23 to 0.57%. Both GFR and RBF averaged 31% less in group 1 than in group 2 but, when factored by body weight, the differences were abolished. The results indicate that alternate-day feeding causes substantial oscillations in GFR and RBF in healthy awake rats through mechanisms unlikely to involve changes in extracellular fluid volume alone and limits GFR and RBF to average values markedly lower than those observed for larger ad libitum-fed rats of the same age.