Urinary osmotic concentration capacity during renal ontogeny is subject to changes of medullary cytoarchitecture and of segmental epithelial transport characteristics. Osmotic equilibrium between interstitial and tubular fluid of the terminal nephron segment in response to vasopressin is an absolute essential of maximal urinary osmotic concentration. The regulation of osmotic water permeability (Pf) in this terminal epithelial segment during ontogenetic differentiation has not been documented. The inner medullary collecting duct (IMCD), the terminal 40% of total segmental length, was dissected at two stages of postnatal ontogenetic differentiation from immature (days 7-15) and from mature (days 33-37) rat kidneys and perfused in vitro. Pf (micron/s) was measured (bath hyperosmotic) in the absence and presence of arginine vasopressin (AVP, 230 pM). Basal Pf was 32.3 +/- 4.03 (n = 26) in the immature IMCD (IMCDi) and 111.5 +/- 20.6 (n = 15) in the mature segment (IMCDm). AVP increased Pf in IMCDi from 46.4 +/- 10.5 to 102 +/- 25.7 micron/s, whereas in IMCDm the AVP-dependent change of Pf was from 104.2 +/- 41.2 to 693 +/- 176 micron/s. AVP (2,300 pM) did not further increase Pf in IMCDi. Forskolin (50 microM) changed Pf in IMCDi from 34.9 +/- 6.3 to 104.1 +/- 16 micron/s; the corresponding change in IMCDm was from 150 +/- 32 to 985.8 +/- 133 micron/s. An analogue of adenosine 3',5'-cyclic monophosphate (cAMP; 10(-3) M) increased Pf in IMCDi from 35.5 +/- 11.4 to 138.5 +/- 32.6 and in IMCDm from 79.6 +/- 32.3 to 702.2 +/- 283 micron/s.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)