Reply to: Schreuder

摘要

reply: In aging male Wistar rats, renal injury develops spontaneously (2). It is gratifying that Dr. Schreuder is intrigued by our recent finding of a protective effect of early postnatal protein restriction (i.e., during lactation) on the spontaneous development of renal injury in male Wistar rats followed up to 12 mo of age (10). In his Letter to the Editor, in this issue of AJP-Regulatory, Integrative and Comparative Physiology, Dr. Schreuder (7a) postulates that protein restriction during lactation should result in a lower glomerular number, and presumably increased glomerular volume. This would conform to a finding documented recently by Dr. Schreuder's group in 75-day-old rats that were food restricted by doubling litter size directly after birth. Thus, these pups had a low calorie and protein intake. They found that the glomerular number was 25% lower and the glomerular volume 35% higher in the food-restricted group (8).