Nature 202, 918 - 919 (30 May 1964); doi:10.1038/202918a0

Effect of Whole-body Irradiation on the Rate of Increase of Blood Urea Nitrogen following Bilateral Nephrectomy in Rats and Rabbits

MILES FOX & M. F. A. WOODRUFF

Department of Surgical Science and Medical Research Council Research Group on Clinical and Experimental Problems of Transplantation, University of Edinburgh.

WHOLE-BODY irradiation is one of the procedures used to promote survival of a kidney homograft. Since such irradiation produces extensive cellular damage it might conceivably lead to a rise in the amount of urea and other products of protein breakdown in the blood stream if, as sometimes happens, the graft remains for a time completely anuric or functions poorly. To investigate the matter we have examined the effect of whole-body irradiation, in doses comparable with those used clinically prior to renal transplantation, in rats and rabbits rendered completely anuric by bilateral nephrectomy.