Relationship between renal injury and vascular function in rats exposed to renal ischemia/reperfusion

Background: Ischemia/reperfusion (IR) injury is a leading cause of acute kidney injury (AKI), which is frequent clinical syndrome with high morbidity and mortality. AKI results in renal tissue injury and renal dysfunction. In addition, AKI leads to failure of multiple organs such as brain, heart and lung. Furthermore, it is well known that the vascular dysfunction occurs in the renal arteries and microvessels following IR, but there are few reports on vascular reactivity in large vessels such as the thoracic aorta. In this study, we examined time-dependent changes of renal function in ischemic AKI (IAKI) model rats. At the same time, we investigated the correlative relationship between endothelium-dependent vasorelaxant responses to acetylcholine (Ach) of the thoracic aorta and renal function after IR.