Increasing Intake of Soybean Protein or Casein, but Not Cod Meal, Reduces Nephrocalcinosis in Female Rats

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Female weanling rats were fed diets with soybean protein, casein or cod meal at 171, 342 or 513 mmol nitrogen/100 g for 3 wk. The diets were isonitrogenous and balanced for fat, cholesterol, calcium, magnesium and phosphorus. Cod meal feeding at 171 and 342 mmol nitrogen/100 g diet produced lower kidney calcium concentrations than the feeding of either soybean protein or casein. Increasing protein intakes were associated with reduced kidney calcium concentrations in the rats fed either soybean protein or casein but not in those fed cod meal. The anti-nephrocalcinogenic effect of increasing intakes of soybean protein may relate to the lowering of urinary phosphorus concentration. Increasing intakes of casein probably inhibited nephrocalcinogenesis by lowering urinary pH and raising urinary magnesium concentration. Increasing cod meal concentrations in the diet lowered urinary pH and raised urinary magnesium and calcium concentrations, but the effects on nephrocalcinogenesis of these changes probably counteracted each other.