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