Effect of nephrectomy on the minute renal circulation

¹ Department of Anatomy, Temple University School of Medicine, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

By means of a technique determining the number of glomeruli patent to plasma flow in a 10-second interval it was established that unilateral nephrectomy was followed by a rise in glomerular count both immediately and 4–7 days after nephrectomy in the 50–125-gm animal. The glomerular count was greater in the 4–7-day postnephrectomy group. The 126–200-gm animals had no immediate response to nephrectomy but showed a rise in count in the 4–7-day postnephrectomy period. It is therefore inferred that under the stated experimental conditions in the normal animal all the glomeruli are not patent to the flow of plasma at any one time.