Tubular obstruction in ischemic ARF. The existence of proteolytic pathways involving cysteine proteases, namely calpain and caspases, may therefore explain the decrease in proximal tubule sodium reabsorption and increased FENa secondary to proteolytic uncoupling of Na+/K+-ATPase from its basolateral membrane anchoring proteins. This tubular perturbation alone, however, does not explain the fall in GFR that leads to nitrogenous-waste retention and thus the rise in BUN and serum creatinine. There are, however, potential pathways whereby loss of brush border membranes, loss of viable and nonviable proximal tubule cells, and decreased proximal tubule sodium reabsorption may lead to a decreased GFR during ARF. First of all, brush border membranes and cellular debris could provide the substrate for intraluminal obstruction in the highly resistant portion of distal nephrons (Figure 3). In fact, microdissection of individual nephrons of kidneys from patients with ARF demonstrated obstructing casts in distal tubules and collecting ducts (42). This observation could explain the dilated proximal tubules that are observed upon renal biopsy of ARF kidneys, even though GFR is less than 10% of normal. The intraluminal casts in ARF kidneys stain prominently for Tamm-Horsfall protein (THP), which is produced in the thick ascending limb (Figure 8). Importantly, THP is secreted into tubular fluid as a monomer but subsequently may become a polymer that forms a gel-like material in the presence of increased luminal Na+ concentration, as occurs in the distal nephron during clinical ARF with the decrease in tubular sodium reabsorption (43). Thus, the THP polymeric gel in the distal nephron provides an intraluminal environment for distal cast formation involving viable, apoptotic, and necrotic tubule epithelial cells, brush border membranes, and ECM (extracellular matrix) (e.g., fibronectin) (Figure 3) (44). Whether tubular obstruction by casts is alone sufficient to account for the decreased GFR associated with clinical ARF is unknown. Certainly, net transglomerular capillary pressure can be decreased secondary to increased tubule pressure, as has been demonstrated using micropuncture techniques in experimental animals with acute ureteral obstruction (45). However, micropuncture studies in kidneys with acute ischemic injury have demonstrated that normalization of proximal tubular flow rate in a single nephron can dislodge some previously obstructing luminal casts and improve GFR in the same nephron (46). Thus, it can be proposed that at least some of the luminal casts would not cause obstruction to tubular flow if glomerular and thus tubular pressures were normal.