Effect of unilateral nephrectomy on growth of the Wistar/Furth Wilms' tumor.
Compensatory renal growth, that is, renal growth following contralateral nephrectomy, is mediated by either the elaboration or the activation of a renotrophic growth factor. Since tumor growth may be modulated by various factors, we evaluated the effect of the renotrophic growth factor associated with compensatory renal growth on the Wistar/Furth rat Wilms' tumor. When compared to tumors grown in sham nephrectomized animals, tumors grown in animals who had undergone unilateral nephrectomy showed an increase in tumor weight and in DNA content. In addition, the rate of new cell formation as reflected by the uptake of tritiated thymidine into tumor cells was significantly higher and did not decline when tumors grown in animals who had undergone unilateral nephrectomy were compared to tumors from sham nephrectomized animals. Our studies therefore suggest that the renotrophic growth factor associated with compensatory renal growth may have ubiquitous growth regulating activity and that further studies may elucidate its role in the modulation of normal and neoplastic growth.
D000818:Animals; D004247:DNA / Q000096:biosynthesis; D007668:Kidney / Q000473:pathology; D007680:Kidney Neoplasms / Q000097:blood / Q000473:pathology*; D008297:Male; D009368:Neoplasm Transplantation; D009392:Nephrectomy; D009929:Organ Size; D051381:Rats; D011919:Rats, Inbred Strains; D013936:Thymidine / Q000378:metabolism; D013997:Time Factors; D009396:Wilms Tumor / Q000097:blood / Q000473:pathology*
D004247:DNA; D013936:Thymidine