Access to rat kidney with minimal anesthesia and surgery: a new
experimental model.
Sadowski, Janusz, Elzbieta Kompanowska-Jezierska, and Agnieszka
Walkowska.
Department of Applied Physiology, Medical Research Centre of the
Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, Poland
APStracts 2:0245R, 1995.
Chronic surgical explantation of the left rat kidney out of the
abdominal cavity under the flank skin enabled easy access to the
organ and ipsilateral urine collection under light chloralose
anesthesia and virtually without surgical intervention. The
glomerular filtration rate, urine flow and osmolality, sodium
excretion and medullary tissue hypertonicity were similar in the
explanted and in the contralateral kidney while CPAH was 14% lower.
The function of the explanted kidney was also compared with that of
the kidney acutely exposed in rats under Inactin anesthesia and
rendered euvolemic by isooncotic albumin infusion. Again, in both
preparations renal function was comparable except that over time
urine osmolality remained stable in the former and fell from 1385 +
195 to 835 + 167 mosm/kg H2O (p<0.02) in the latter, indicating
deterioration of urine concentration. Laser-Doppler probes could be
easily applied in the explanted kidney to measure cortical and
medullary blood flow. The new experimental model offers some
advantages, both over studies using conscious rats and over
experiments involving deep anesthesia and acute surgery.
Received 7 February 1995; accepted in final form 9 August 1995.
APS Manuscript Number R99-5.
Article publication pending Am. J. Physiol. (Regulatory Integrative
Comp. Physiology).
ISSN 1080-4757 Copyright 1995 The American Physiological Society.
Published in APStracts on 23 September 1995.