ABSTRACT
The kidney is a frequent target organ of toxicity in laboratory animals and humans following exposure to chemicals or therapeutics. This nephrotoxicity typically depends on selective concentration of the toxic moiety at the target cell or subcellular organelle. The kidney receives more blood flow per gram of tissue than other organs and functions to concentrate and excrete solutes (including xenobiotics) and metabolize xenobiotics. Because of this, the kidney is at a risk of greater exposures to compounds, increasing the potential for cellular damage. In addition, kidney has the capacity both to dissociate toxicants from protein-bound states and to transform solutes, by changes in pH, to active and reactive forms. Renal metabolism of xenobiotics to reactive electrophilic intermediates can cause renal injury following covalent or peroxidative reactions with the target cell macromolecules. Physiological changes in basal renal functions may also be altered by xenobiotics or their metabolites without producing any morphologic changes.
