During hypoxic or ischemic renal tubular injury, phospholipase A2 (PLA2) induces membrane deacylation, causing fatty acid accumulation and phospholipid breakdown. Because these changes can compromise cellular integrity, PLA2 activitY has been widely proposed as a critical mediator of hypoxic renal tubular injury and, hence, of ischemic acute renal failure. To explore this hypothesis, isolated rat proximal tubules were subjected to continuous oxygenation or to hypoxic injury with or without exogenous PLA2 addition (porcine or bovine pancreatic PLA2; bee or snake venom PLA2). Cell death was quantified by lactic dehydrogenase (LDH) release. Pancreatic PLA2 (0.4 unit/ml) caused no LDH release under oxygenated conditions, and it dramatically attenuated hypoxic cell death (e.g., no PLA2, 55 ± 3% LDH release; porcine pancreatic PLA2, 22 ± 1% LDH release; P < 0.001). Bee and snake venom PLA2 (0.4 unit/ml) were directiy toxic to tubules under oxygenated conditions, and this injury was additive with that induced by hypoxia. However, when these venoms were serially diluted (removing their overt toxicity), they, too, mitigated hypoxic cell death (LDH release with PLA2, 33 ± 2%; without PLA2, 60 ± 1% LDH release; P < 0.001). PLA2-mediated cytoprotection was Ca2+ dependent (negated by Ca2+ chelation), and it was expressed despite worsening hypoxia-associated membrane deacylation/fatty acid accumulation (12 times) and ATP depletion. These results indicate that PLA2 activity can exert both beneficial and deleterious effects on 02-deprived renal tubules, the net result of which can be a salvaging of cells from hypoxic cell death.During the induction of hypoxic/ischemic renal tubular injury and ischemic acute renal failure, marked increments in fatty acid concentrations occur, in part because of phospholipase-mediated membrane attack (1-4). Because the latter can compromise cellular integrity, it is widely hypothesized that phospholipase activation (5), with resultant membrane damage, is a critical determinant of hypoxic/ischemic cell injury, in general, and of ischemic acute renal failure (6, 7). This view is supported by experimental observations showing that relatively nonspecific phospholipase inhibitors may ameliorate in vivo and in vitro ischemic/hypoxic cell injury (8)(9)(10)(11), that addition of phospholipase A2 (PLA2) to isolated renal tubules causes direct cytotoxicity (12), and that exogenous PLA2 can exacerbate selected pathways that themselves lead to tubular cell death (2).In the course of exploring some of the consequences of exogenous PLA2 addition to isolated rat renal proximal tubular segments (PTS), a perplexing observation was made: addition of pancreatic PLA2, rather than causing cell injury, actually conferred a marked cytoprotective effect against hypoxic cell death. Given that PLA2 is viewed as a mediator of acute tubular necrosis, rather than a defense against it, the The publication costs of this article were defrayed in part by page charge payment. This article must therefore be hereby marked "...