DIET AND NEPHRITIS

Laboratory studies on the effects of dietary factors in nephritis have been stimulated by Masugi's¹ recent demonstration that chronic nephritis, closely resembling human Bright's disease, can be induced in laboratory animals by the intravenous injection of a properly selected organ-specific nephrotoxic serum. This work has apparently been confirmed by Smadel and Farr² at the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research, who studied³ the effects of high protein diets on experimental chronic nephritis produced by this means in rats. These investigators studied the renal function, plasma proteins and hemoglobin of forty-eight young rats on routine laboratory diets. Severe nephritis was then produced in these rats by intravenous injections of the Masugi organ-specific antikidney serum. The animals were then divided into three groups, which were subsequently fed on three different isocaloric diets. Each diet contained 27 per cent fat (Crisco), 4 per cent salt mixture and adequate vitamins. In addition,