Abstract

Considerable evidence indicates that the connecting tubule cells, a type of cell of the distal nephron which seems to participate on potassium secretion, may be the place where renal kallikrein is synthetized. As potassium secretion and kallikrein synthesis may occur in the same cells, we studied the effect of high potassium diet on renal kallikrein production. The kallikrein containing cells from rats fed a normal and high potassium diet were evaluated using a combination of morphometric analysis, conventional electron microscopy, and ultrastructural immunocytochemistry. High potassium diet produced hypertrophy and hyperplasia of the kallikrein containing cells. Hyperplasia was sustained by an increased number of immunoreactive cells/mm2 (151 +/- 14 vs. 86.4 +/- 12, P less than 0.01), an increased number of binucleated immunoreactive cells/mm2 (11.90 +/- 2.1 vs. 3.77 +/- 0.17, P less than 0.005), and by the presence of mitosis. Cell hypertrophy was sustained by an increased cross-sectional area of immunoreactive cells (mu 2) (320.4 +/- 21 vs. 104.5 +/- 6.1, P less than 0.001), by an increased area of basal plasma membrane infoldings, by an hypertrophy of the components of the Golgi complex, hypertrophy of the components of the rough endoplasmic reticulum, and by a larger number of secretory-like vesicles containing kallikrein. The rats fed with high potassium diet had higher values on urinary kallikrein excretion-amidase activity (3.70 +/- 0.51 vs. 2.01 +/-0.37 units/day, P less than 0.02), higher values on potassium excretion (18.8 +/- 1.7 vs. 1.31 +/- 0.1 mmol/day, P less than 0.001), and higher urinary volume (51.5 +/- 5.3 vs. 12.2 +/- 1.6 ml/day, P less than 0.001)