The mechanism of the decline in glomerular filtration rate in gentamicin-induced acute renal failure in the rat

Abstract

Experiments were performed to assess glomerular function in two groups of anaesthetized adult Munich-Wistar rats. One group received gentamicin in a dose of 60 mg/kg body weight/day for 14 days and the second group served as untreated controls. A marked decline in GFR was evident in rats given gentamicin and the mean RPF was also reduced. In addition, whole kidney filtration fraction fell significantly with gentamicin. Proximal tubular hydrostatic pressure was slightly increased in gentamicin-treated rats, but this increase was not sufficient to significantly reduce GFR. It is suggested that the impairment in GFR observed with gentamicin in the present study is partly the result of a fall in RPF. Earlier work suggests that the component of the GFR reduction due to the fall in filtration fraction is the result of drug-induced fall in either glomerular water permeability and/or filtration surface area.