Effect of Unilateral Nephrectomy on Growth of the Wistar/Furth Wilms’ Tumor

Abstract

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.

Comparison of nephrectomy and/or doxorubicin treatment in rabbit renal VX‐2 carcinoma

“…It has been suggested that "circulating factors" present after unilateral nephrectomy may stimulate both the compensatory growth of the remaining kidney and the growth of distant renal tumor metastases [55,56]. In the present study the remaining right kidney in nephrectomized rabbits was significantly heavier in cured compared to not cured rabbits, indicating that compensatory growth did occur.…”

Effect of Unilateral Nephrectomy on Tumor Growth of the Murine Renal Cell Adenocarcinoma and Neuroblastoma

“…In a previous study this phenomenon was ob served in a murine W/F Wilms' tumor model [8], Factors for tumor growth stimulation in Wilms' tu mor have been reported [5. 12, 13].…”

“…Other factors may also have a role [5 7], In a recent study, tumor growth of a subcutaneous ly implanted murine Wilms' tumor was observed to increase after the tumor-bearing animal had under gone unilateral nephrectomy [8]. Since a renotrophic growth-promoting factor appeared to be stimulating tumor growth of the subcutaneously implanted Wilms' tumor, other murine tumors were evaluated to determine if this renotrophic factor was specific for normal and/or malignant renal tumors.…”