Abstract
Survival biopsies are frequently applied in rat kidney disease models, but several drawbacks such as surgical kidney trauma, bleeding risk and variable loss of kidney tissue are still unsolved. Therefore, we developed an easy-to-use core biopsy instrument and evaluated whether two consecutive kidney biopsies within the same kidney can be carried out in a standardized manner. On day 0, 18 Lewis rats underwent a right nephrectomy and 9 of these rats a subsequent first biopsy of the left kidney (Bx group). 9 control rats had a sham biopsy of the left kidney (Ctrl group). On day 7, a second kidney biopsy/sham biopsy was performed. On day 42, all animals were sacrificed and their kidneys were removed for histology. Biopsy cylinders contained 57±28 glomeruli per transversal section, representing an adequate sample size. PAS staining showed that the biopsy depth was limited to the renal cortex whereas surgical tissue damage was limited to the area immediately adjacent to the taken biopsy cylinder. On day 42, the reduction of functional renal mass after two biopsies was only 5.2% and no differences of body weight, blood pressure, proteinuria, serum creatinine, glomerulosclerosis, interstitial fibrosis or number of ED-1 positive macrophages were found between both groups. In summary, our apparatus offers a safe method to perform repetitive kidney biopsies with minimal trauma and sufficient sample size and quality even in experimental disease models restricted to one single kidney.
Highlights
Despite the existence of a wide variety of kidney disease models in the rat, no standardized method for rat kidney biopsies has been developed
We developed and used the new apparatus for rat kidney biopsy as demonstrated in Fig. 2 which is described in the methods section more detailed
No differences with regard to body weight, blood pressure, serum creatinine or proteinuria were present in the 18 Lewis rats
Summary
Despite the existence of a wide variety of kidney disease models in the rat, no standardized method for rat kidney biopsies has been developed. Biopsies are performed during an open surgical procedure, removing a variable volume close to that of a 1/4 or 1/3 nephrectomy. This approach may lead to a series of unwanted side effects, especially when used in single kidney disease models such as kidney transplantation, renal artery perfusion, ureteral ligation, accelerated models with unilateral nephrectomy or during experiments with enhanced bleeding disposition. We developed a new apparatus for standardized rat kidney biopsies to eliminate the apparent problems of rather traumatic and hardly standardized biopsy methods We demonstrate that this new apparatus allows the implementation of two standardized and effective rat kidney biopsies within a single kidney without provoking secondary kidney damage or unwanted side effects that have to be considered for long-term outcome
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