Studies of the acute renal effects of hemolyzed red blood cells in dogs including estimations of renal blood flow with krypton.

Many investigators have attempted to produce experimental acute renal failure by the administration of hemolyzed red blood cells or the products of hemolysis. Almost all of the successful attempts have required the preliminary preparation of the experimental animal by marked alteration of renal hemodynamics in association with systemic hypotension (1), severe dehydration (1, 2), or occlusion of the renal artery (3, 4). In other studies renal failure was produced by the administration of massive doses of hemoglobin (5), methemoglobin (2, 6), or heterologous blood (7). In all of these situations, it was not possible to differentiate between the specific renal effects of the administered substances and the hemodynamic changes secondary to the alterations in systemic circulation. Studies in man (8-il) and dogs (12) involving the administration of distilled water, autologous hemolyzed cells, or hemoglobin have suggested that renal ischemia was acutely produced by the administered substances. Because of these experiments, it has become generally accepted that decreased renal blood flow (RBF) is important in the pathogenesis of acute renal failure resulting from intravascular hemolysis. In these studies (8-12), however, the clearance of paraaminohippurate (PAH) was taken to indicate effective renal plasma flow (RPF) even during oliguria. The present series of experiments was undertaken to evaluate the acute changes in renal function secondary to the administration of homologous hemolyzed red blood cells with the following