The nature of D-serine--induced nephrotoxicity

Renal structural changes were studied sequentially between 1 hour and 6 days in rats treated with D-serine. Extensive necrosis of proximal straight tubules was rapid in onset and was followed by complete tubular regeneration 6 days post-treatment. The apparent progression of cellular changes was initial shrinkage, followed either by swelling and loss of apical cytoplasm or immediate lysis of cytoplasmic and nuclear contents. Tubular damage left only the basement membrane as a barrier between interstitial and luminal fluids. In similarly treated rats, proteinuria and glucosuria developed at the onset of tubular necrosis and disappeared when the tubules were completely relined by epithelium suggesting that they are due to diffusion of protein and glucose from interstitium into tubular fluid across the denuded basement membranes and that epithelial cells, under normal conditions, act as a barrier to diffusion of certain substances between the interstitium and tubular fluid.