Hypertension after allogeneic kidney transplantation in the rat.

With the use of cadaver donors, the number of kidney transplantations is growing rapidly. The total number for the whole world is estimated at over 100.000. Half of these transplantations are performed in Europe. For the Netherlands the total number of renal transplantations carried out until the end of 1985 amounts to 3.000. Out of these 3.000, nearly 200 involved children under 15 years of age. In the unnatural situation of allogeneic kidney transplan- I tation, where surgeons are attempting to contravene nature by inserting foreign proteins into an unwilling host, unusual compensatory host mechanisms may take place. One of these mechanisms is the development of post-renal transplantation hypertension. Although a successful renal allograft may cure hypertension, it is now recognized that there is an alarmlingly high incidence of hypertension in transplanted patients. In this situation hypertension poses diagnostic and therapeutic problems in many patients. A variety of factors may be responsible for the genesis of blood pressure elevation in the post-transplantation period, but an analysis of the importance of the various factors is very problematic in humans. The aim of the present experiments was to develop a model in rats in which post-transplantation hypertension could be studied. This model was used to reveal the mechanisms causing the hypertension after kidney transplantation in the rat and then to find ways to prevent this post-transplantation hypertension in rats.