Nephrol Dial Transplant (2000) 15: 799-810
© 2000 European Renal Association-European Dialysis and Transplant Association
Severe proteinuria, sustained for 6 months, induces tubular epithelial cell injury and cell infiltration in rats but not progressive interstitial fibrosis
1 Department of Cell Biology, Institute of Nephrology, 2 Department of Internal Medicine (II), Niigata University School of Medicine, Niigata and 3 Department of Medicine, Teikyo University School of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan
Background. Sustained proteinuria is reported to be very harmful to the tubulointerstitium, leading to severe interstitial injury. However, it remains unclear whether sustained proteinuria itself is responsible for severe interstitial injury because, in the previously reported models, the development of factors other than proteinuria in tubulointerstitial lesions could not be excluded completely.
Methods. After treatment to induce immune tolerance to mouse immunoglobulin, 20 rats were injected with anti-rat slit diaphragm monoclonal antibody (mAb) 5-1-6 twice a week for 6 months and were then sacrificed.
Results. mAb 5-1-6 induced massive proteinuria in 11 rats. In nine rats with mild proteinuria, no histological alteration could be detected with light microscopy and immunofluorescence. In nephrotic rats, light microscopy showed minor glomerular abnormalities, with interstitial oedema, tubular epithelial cell degeneration and interstitial cell infiltration. Immunofluorescence revealed increased expression of vimentin and an increased number of OX1-, OX19- and ED1-positive cells. However, we could not detect any accumulation of type I and IV collagen or laminin in the tubulointerstitium. RTPCR showed that the expression of mRNA for type I collagen was not increased, compared with that in control rats.
Conclusions. We succeeded in developing a model of persistent nephrosis without severe glomerular abnormalities, nephrectomy or other manoeuvres known to induce disturbed haemodynamics, using an agent without tubulointerstitial toxicity, and considered it to be suitable for investigating the direct toxicity of proteinuria. In this model, isolated massive proteinuria induced interstitial injury. However, the degree of injury was suggested to be much less than that observed in other previously developed models.
Keywords: monoclonal antibody 5-1-6; sustained proteinuria; tubulointerstitial injury
Correspondence and offprint requests to: Dr Fujio Shimizu, Department of Cell Biology, Institute of Nephrology, Niigata University School of Medicine, Asahimachi-Dori, Niigata 951-8510, Japan.
![]()
CiteULike
Connotea
Del.icio.us What's this?
This article has been cited by other articles:
![]() |
D. Bolignano, G. Coppolino, S. Campo, C. Aloisi, G. Nicocia, N. Frisina, and M. Buemi Urinary neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin (NGAL) is associated with severity of renal disease in proteinuric patients Nephrol. Dial. Transplant., January 1, 2008; 23(1): 414 - 416. [Full Text] [PDF] |
||||
![]() |
M. Abbate, C. Zoja, and G. Remuzzi How Does Proteinuria Cause Progressive Renal Damage? J. Am. Soc. Nephrol., November 1, 2006; 17(11): 2974 - 2984. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] |
||||
![]() |
B. Kiperova The treatment of glomerular disease--a compromise between the standard and the individual approach Nephrol. Dial. Transplant., July 1, 2003; 18(90005): v31 - 33. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] |
||||

