The pressure in the renal interstitium is an important factor for normal kidney
function. Here we develop a computational model of the rat kidney and use it to
investigate the relationship between arterial blood pressure and interstitial fluid
pressure. In addition, we investigate how tissue flexibility influences this relationship.
Due to the complexity of the model, the large number of parameters, and the
inherent uncertainty of the experimental data, we utilize Monte Carlo sampling to
study the model’s behavior under a wide range of parameter values and
to compute first- and total-order sensitivity indices. Characteristically, at
elevated arterial blood pressure, the model predicts cases with increased or
reduced interstitial pressure. The transition between the two cases is controlled
mostly by the compliance of the blood vessels located before the afferent
arterioles.
Keywords
mathematical model, sensitivity analysis, Monte Carlo,
kidney, interstitium
National Institute for Mathematical
and Biological Synthesis (NIMBioS)
University of Tennessee
1122 Volunteer Blvd., Suite 106
Knoxville, TN 37996
United States