Autoregulation absent in normal kidney but present after renal damage

¹ Department of Physiology and Biophysics, University of Mississippi Medical Center, Jackson, Mississippi

Experiments of this study indicate that the kidney does not normally autoregulate its blood flow; in these experiments a change in perfusion pressure always resulted in a corresponding change in renal blood flow when the kidney was not subjected to surgical trauma. On the other hand, when renal ischemia was induced or when the perirenal tissues were intentionally damaged, autoregulation of renal blood flow occurred in every instance. Two possible theories are discussed for this autoregulation: a) blockage of the renal lymphatic drainage and b) disruption of the blood supply to the walls of the renal and intrarenal arteries.