The Role of Tubuloglomerular Feedback in the Pathogenesis of Acute Kidney Injury

Abstract

The mechanisms involved in reduction in glomerular filtration rate (GFR) in prerenal and intrarenal acute kidney injury (AKI) are not mutually exclusive and prerenal mechanisms continue to play a role in the pathogenesis of established intrarenal AKI. In nearly all forms of AKI, glomeruli are morphologically normal; therefore, the investigative efforts have focused on systemic and intrarenal mechanisms that lead to the failure of filtration at the glomerulus. There is observed and/or deductive evidence supporting the role of tubuloglomerular feedback in mediating the reduction in GFR in various forms of AKI. In prerenal AKI, the activation of various neurohormonal renal vasoconstrictors can increase the sensitivity and responsiveness of tubuloglomerular feedback. In different forms of intrarenal AKI, the varying degree of tubular injury is linked to filtration failure directly by mechanisms such as tubular obstruction or tubular backleak of solutes, or indirectly via the activation of tubuloglomerular feedback. Tubular obstruction or backleak of solutes, while readily understood, do not appear to be consistent features in experimental AKI and have a limited role in explaining the degree of impairment of GFR in human AKI. The functional connection between tubular damage and filtration failure mediated by tubuloglomerular feedback via alterations in nephron plasma flow and glomerular capillary hydrostatic pressure is more consistently observed or deduced from experimental data. It also explains the principal abnormality of increased preglomerular resistances, a pathogenic characteristic of both experimental and human AKI.