Renal response to infusion of dopamine precursors in anaesthetized rats.

In the present study the renal response to intravenous infusion of the catecholamine precursors l-dihydroxyphenylalanine (l-DOPA) or l-tyrosine was investigated in thiopentone sodium-anaesthetized Sprague-Dawley rats. Glomerular filtration rate (GFR) was assessed by renal clearance of inulin, urinary concentration of dopamine (UDAV) by HPLC and sodium excretion (UNaV) by flame photometry. We found that basal UDAV was 6.5 ± 0.5 pmol/min per 100 g body weight (mean ± SEM). Intravenous infusion of l-tyrosine at 0.1–3.0 μmol/min dose dependently enhanced UDAV (17 ± 3 to 144 ± 14 pmol/ min respectively) with higher doses of l-tyrosine resulting in no further increase in UDAV. Compared with l-tyrosine administration significantly lower doses of l-DOPA (0.07 to 35 nmol/min) caused increases in UDAV which were orders of magnitude higher (18 ± 1 to 7800 ± 470 pmol/min, respectively) and did not show saturation characteristics. GFR did not change in response to l-tyrosine or l-DOPA infusion. No variations in urinary flow rate or in UNaV could be observed which were significantly correlated to changes in UDAV. In contrast, intravenous infusion of dopamine at a dose of 6 nmol/min significantly increased GFR by 35 ± 6.2% and urinary flow rate by over 2-fold. Immunohistochemistry with light microscopy revealed no tyrosine hydroxylase in the kidney. Therefore, dopamine synthesis in the tubular cells mainly depends on the renal supply of l-DOPA. The unchanged GFR and UNaV in spite of large variations of UDAV argue against the hypothesis that intratubular dopamine plays a functional role in the regulation of hemodynamics or sodium transport in the kidney. Renal dopamine excretion may rather represent an effective pathway for the elimination of catecholamine precursors from the plasma.