Paving the way ahead: protocol optimization of mouse models in crush syndrome related acute kidney injury research.

BACKGROUNDS

Crush syndrome (CS) is the leading cause of death after earthquakes, second only to direct trauma. Acute kidney injury (AKI) is the most severe complication of CS. Research based on the CS-AKI mouse model and kidney function assessment by glomerular filtration rate (GFR) helps to elucidate the pathogenesis of CS-AKI, which contributes to effective treatment measures.

METHODS

Mice were modeled by the multi-channel small animal crushing platform. We set up different CS-AKI modeling parameters by applying different crushing weights (0.5 kg, 1.0 kg, 1.5 kg), crushing durations (6 h, 12 h, 16 h), and decompression durations (6 h, 12 h, 24 h). The GFR, serum creatinine (SCr), blood urea nitrogen (BUN), kidney tissue mRNA and mRNA expression levels, and HE staining were examined to evaluate the results of different protocols.

RESULTS

The results showed that with the crushing weight increased, the kidney function assessment's gold standard GFR significantly decreased, and the levels of SCr and BUN increased. Meanwhile, the longer crushing durations found a higher extension of inflammatory cell infiltration in the kidney. The degree of kidney injury continued to worsen with the duration of decompression, indicating severe damage after reperfusion, which was associated with tubular injury and a sustained elevation of the inflammatory state.

CONCLUSION

We successfully constructed CS-AKI mouse models with different severities under the above parameters. Applying 1.5 kg for 16 h and then decompressing for 24 h induced severe AKI. These findings provide clues for further exploration of the mechanism and treatment of traumatic AKI.