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Global Sensitivity Analysis in a Mathematical Model of the Renal Interstitium

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.