Cell Injury and Cell Regeneration in Selective Renal Arteriography in Rabbits A Preliminary Report

Selective renal arteriography has been performed in rabbits to study the toxic effect of sodium metrizoate (Isopaque 260 mg/ml) on the tubular cells. It is assumed that cells which are killed by the contrast medium are replaced by increased mitotic activity of the remaining ells. The Colcemid method has been used to study the cells renewal in the kidneys at different time intervals after injection of different doses of contrast medium in the renal arteries. After injection of 0.15 ml/kg body weight, no increased mitotic rate was observed, whereas after 0.75 and 1.5 ml/kg body weight a wave of Colcemid arrested mitoses was observed with a peak on the sixth day after arteriography. All doses were injected twice with an interval of five minutes between injections. It was estimated that the smaller dose, which corresponds to about 50 ml injected twice in the renal artery of a person of 70 kg, killed between 3 and 4% of the tubular cells, and the higher dose, which corresponds to about 100 ml injected twice in a person of 70 kg, killed approximately 9% of the tubular cells. The regeneration took place mainly between the fourth and the eighth day after the contrast material injection.