Relation of ammonia excretion adaptation to glutaminase activity in acidotic, subtotalnephrectomized rats

The response of renal ammonia excretion to acidosis was examined in adult rats with reduced renal mass (SNX). Three days after surgical ablation of 70% of renal mass, the activity of renal phosphate-dependent glutaminase (PDG) in SNX rats was 7.7 +/- 1.5 mu moles of ammonia/100 mg of protein min or approximately 50% of the activity in normal rats (14.5 +/- 2.6 mu moles of ammonia/100 mg of protein min), but enhanced ammonia excretion per unit weight was observed in SNX rats (7.2 +/- 0.7 in control vs. 14.6 +/- 3.2 mumoles/g of kidney.hr in SNX rats). The cause (s) of the reduction in the specific activity of PDG (as well as the increase in ammonia excretion) is unknown. The PDG decrease was not due to apparent tissue damage and appeared to be a specific change as the activity of renal succinate dehydrogenase, another mitochondrial inner-membrane enzyme, did not decrease (from the control level) in SNX rats. Ammonia excretion showed no significant response to an acute acid load (ammonium chloride, 5 mmoles/kg of body wt) in SNX rats. Ammonia excretion, however, did adapt to repeated acid-loading (10 mmoles of ammonium chloride per kg of body wt per day for 3 days); ammonia excretion increased more than two-fold by third day of treatment. This adaptive response was associated with a two-fold rise in renal PDG. Administration of actinomycin D, at a dose which produced no gross toxic signs (100 microgram/kg/day i.p.) inhibited virtually all the increase in both ammonia excretion and PDG activity. The correlation of ammonia excretion and PDG adaptations in acidotic SNX rats was similar to that previously observed in infant rats.