The susceptibility of experimental glomerulonephritis in six different strains of mice.

An experimental glomerulonephritis was produced in mice by an injection with a sub-nephrotoxic dose of nephrotoxic serum after immunization with rabbit IgG. In order to examine the susceptibility of disease, we tested the onset of nephritis in 6 different strains (ICR,C57BL/6,C3H,DBA/2, nu/nu and DDY) of mice. Strain C57BL/6 mice indicated the highest susceptibility to the disease with a high degree of reproducibility. The excretion of protein in urine, the elevation of serum cholesterol and blood urea nitrogen level and the decrease of serum albumin were observed in nephritic mice. Typical histopathological changes in the kidney were crescent formation in glomeruli, thickening of glomerular basement membrane and cast of urinary tubuli. Cyclophosphamide, at doses of 5 and 10 mg/kg, inhibited the development of nephritis in C57BL/6 mice. These results suggest that the experimental glomerulonephritis model in C57BL/6 mice is useful for immunopharmacological studies of nephritis.