It is generally known that sodium excretion into the urine increases for several days when a normal person fasts completely. While this phenomenon has been the subject of numerous investigations (1-5), the mechanism of urinary losses of sodium and the loca tion in the nephron where it occurs are obscure. Some authors (2, 5), however, have sug gested a localization of the phenomenon to be Henle's loop and distal tubules by clearance experiments. Therefore, the present experiments were performed to clarify the changing of the function of the Henle's loop of the fasted rat kidney using the single nephron perfu sion technique.Male Wistar rats weighing 150-260 g were used in the experiments. Rats of the con trol non-fasted group were given free access to a dry pellet diet (Na 84 mEq/kg, K 110 mEq/ kg) just prior to experiment and those of the fasted group were deprived of food 18 to 24 hr prior to experimental procedures. All rats were given tap water.The animals were anesthetized with Nembutal (50 mg/kg, Abbott) i.p. and placed on a heated table. After tracheotomy, the femoral vein and the left ureter were catheterized, and the left kidney was exposed. During these surgical procedures, 1 ml of Ringer's solu tion was infused intravenously to replace surgical losses. A collection was made from the early segment of the distal tubule of the same nephron.Left ureteral urine was collected at appropriate intervals for 2 to 4 hr. Blood samples were collected by heart puncture after the experiment.The osmolarities of the tubular samples and ureteral urine were estimated with a micro osmometer. The sodium concentration of the tubular fluid was determined with an ultra micro-flamephotometer (Erma, Model 677), the sodium and potassium concentrations in * Present address: