We investigated insulin-like growth factor I (IGF-I) in the kidney during the initial renal enlargement induced by dietary K depletion in rats. Kidney weight increase was significant after 3 days of K depletion and amounted to 29% after 7 days compared with pair-fed controls [839 +/- 34 vs. 648 +/- 17 mg (SE), P less than 0.01]. The kidney growth occurred despite almost complete arrest in body weight gain in K-depleted animals (8 +/- 3 vs. 34 +/- 4 g/7 days in controls, P less than 0.01). Whole kidney protein, RNA, and DNA estimations indicated that cellular hypertrophy during the first 4 days was followed by hyperplasia. Immunoassayable kidney IGF-I concentration increased by 106% (673 +/- 30 vs. 327 +/- 14 ng/g, P less than 0.01) in K-depleted animals 24 h after induction of K depletion, stayed elevated until day 4, and returned to control levels on day 7. After K depletion for 24 h, IGF-I immunostaining was markedly increased in the medullary parts of the collecting ducts from K-depleted animals, whereas kidney IGF-I gene expression (IGF-I mRNA) had decreased by 36%. The increase in total kidney IGF-I concentration and immunostainable IGF-I in collecting ducts in kidneys from K-depleted rats precedes the renal hypertrophy and thereby suggests a renotropic role for IGF-I. The increase in kidney IGF-I concentration is not associated with increased IGF-I mRNA levels, indicating that non-transcriptional mechanisms may be responsible for the renal IGF-I accumulation.