Renal function and concentrating ability in a desert rodent: the gundi (Ctenodactylus vali)

Clearance and cortical micropuncture experiments were carried out on non diuretic gundis. In this species, the kidney has a long and well developed papilla but, unlike other desert rodents, the vascular organization of the outer medulla is very simple. After withdrawal of water supply for either 24 h or 3 days before the experiments, the urine osmolality was only 1,361 +/- 57, n = 9, before and 1,136 +/- 89 mosmol . kg-1 during anesthesia. The GFR per 100 g B.W.(0.450 ml . min-1) is lower than in the rat studied under similar conditions. With regard to electrolytes the tubular handling of Na, Ca, K and Mg is similar to that observed for another desert rodent, psammomys obesus. For P, massive reabsorption (more than 30% of the filtered load) takes place along the distal convoluted tubule. The relatively poor concentrating ability of the gundi's kidney is not due to a lack of medullary recycling of urea since a net addition of urea to short loops of Henle is observed in this species. Physiological and morphological observations concerning the gundi and other desert rodent species suggest that the vascular bundle development in the outer medulla might affect the renal response to water deprivation.