THE RELATIONSHIP OF THE INTRARENAL DISTRIBUTION OF Hg²⁰³-CHLORMERODRIN TO THE DIURETIC EFFECT

¹ Division of Renal Diseases, Department of Medicine and the Andre Meyer Department of Physics, The Mount Sinai Hospital, New York, New York

Autoradiography was employed to examine the relationship between the intrarenal distribution of Hg²⁰³-chlormerodrin and the diuretic effect. Experiments were performed in dogs undergoing mercurial diuresis induced during metabolic acidosis and during inhibition of mercurial diuresis by metabolic alkalosis, dithiopropanol and p-chloromercuribenzoic acid. No consistent pattern of intrarenal Hg²⁰³ distribution or total renal mercury content could be correlated with the diuretic response It was demonstrated that the presence of maximum mercury concentration at a proximal tubular site does not establish that segment as the locus of diuretic activity. In addition, autoradiographs of human kidney sections revealed a pattern of Hg²⁰³ distribution similar to that found in acidotic dogs. It appears that the tubular binding of chlormerodrin need not be solely determined by factors involved in the production of the mercurial diuresis and may be more closely related to tubular secretion than to the diuretic effect.