Profiles of water and solute transport along long-loop descending limb: analysis by mathematical model

We simulated profiles of water and solute transport along the descending limb of the long-loop nephron by a mathematical model based on mass balance equations for water, sodium, potassium, and urea, using phenomenological coefficients reported for hamsters. We assumed that interstitial concentration of sodium, potassium, and urea increased linearly along the descending limb from 150 to 350, from 5 to 50, and from 5 to 300 mM, respectively. Under this condition an increase in osmolality at the end-descending limb was mainly accounted for by the absorption of water. Considerable amounts of potassium and urea were secreted along the descending limb. Sodium was reabsorbed rather than secreted along the descending limb by both diffusion and solvent drag. The secreted amounts of urea and potassium were comparable to those observed by micropuncture studies. The sodium concentration in the lumen was higher than in the interstitium, with the transmural sodium gradient being 15 meq/liter at the hairpin turn. The potassium mass flow rate at the end-descending limb increased by 2.4 times. Large variations in potassium concentration of the delivered fluid scarcely changed the potassium mass flow rate at the end-descending limb. The secretion of urea and potassium and the reabsorption of sodium were increased as a function of delivered flow rate. An increase in corticomedullary urea gradient decreased the net potassium secretion along the descending limb. When the transport parameters for rabbits were used, both reabsorption of sodium and addition of urea were decreased, but a similar amount of potassium was secreted. These analyses indicate that the mathematical model that takes the species difference and internephron heterogeneity into consideration is useful in illustrating the transport processes along the descending limb of Henle's loop under various physiological and pathophysiological conditions.