Effect of perfusate phosphate concentration on responses to PTH in isolated rat kidney

We studied the excretion of electrolytes and adenosine 3',5'-cyclic monophosphate (cAMP) by rat kidneys perfused for 2 or 3 h at several concentrations of phosphate (Pi). Fractional phosphate excretion increased with higher perfusate Pi concentrations (up to 4.0 mM Pi) without parathyroid hormone (PTH), but no tubular maximum for phosphate reabsorption was reached. The addition of synthetic bovine 1-34 PTH (bPTH) gave a dose-related phosphaturia that depended on the perfusate Pi level. The urinary cAMP response to doses of bPTH was highly dependent on perfusate Pi concentration: with 20 nM bPTH, urinary cAMP was 211 +/- 94 pmol/ml glomerular filtration rate at 1.2 mM Pi and was 3,998 +/- 711 at 4.0 mM Pi (P less than 0.001). Without bPTH, cAMP excretion did not differ among Pi levels. Calcium-to-sodium clearance ratio rose with time in kidneys perfused without bPTH but fell with the addition of as little as 0.02 nM bPTH, regardless of Pi concentration. Variations in Pi or bPTH did not affect fractional magnesium excretion, which fell by 68% through 3 h of perfusion (P less than 0.001). These data suggest that the effects of Pi concentration on renal electrolyte excretion are consistent with changes in the filtered Pi load but that extracellular Pi concentrations dramatically alter the renal cAMP response to bPTH in the isolated perfused kidney.