Acute nephritis of medium severity, affecting both glomeruli and tubules, was produced in rats by injections of anti-rat-kidney serum, given on 3 consecutive days.
The course of the nephritis was markedly influenced by the type of diet which was fed. Rats tended to recover promptly from the induced nephritis when a low protein-high carbohydrate diet was given. On the other hand, in nephritic rats maintained on a medium protein diet the nephritis almost invariably became chronic and half the animals died of renal insufficiency during the 10½ months of observation. Finally none of the rats which received a high protein-low carbohydrate diet recovered from the acute renal injury; all developed chronic progressive nephritis and the majority died of renal failure after some months.
