Bimodal dynamics in nephron autoregulation

The individual functional unit of the kidney (the nephron) displays oscillations in its pressure and flow regulation at two different time scales: fast oscillations associated with a myogenic dynamics of the afferent arteriole, and slower oscillations arising from a delay in the tubuloglomerular feedback. We investigate the intra- and inter-nephron entrainment of the two time-scales. Besides full synchronization, both wavelet analyses of experimental data and numerical simulations reveal a partial entrainment in which neighboring nephrons attain a state of chaotic synchronization with respect to their slow dynamics, but the fast dynamics remain desynchronized.