A powerful model for perioperative and critical care related acute kidney injury is presented. Using whole body hypoperfusion induced by cardiac arrest it is possible to nearly replicate the histologic and functional changes of clinical AKI.
Acute Kidney Injury (AKI) is a common, highly lethal, complication of critical illness which has a high mortality1-4 and which is most frequently caused by whole-body hypoperfusion.5,6 Successful reproduction of whole-body hypoperfusion in rodent models has been fraught with difficulty.7-9,9,10 Models which employ focal ischemia have repeatedly demonstrated results which do not translate to the clinical setting, and larger animal models which allow for whole body hypoperfusion lack access to the full toolset of genetic manipulation possible in the mouse.11,12 However, in recent years a mouse model of cardiac arrest and cardiopulmonary resuscitation has emerged which can be adapted to model AKI.13 This model reliably reproduces physiologic, functional, anatomic, and histologic outcomes seen in clinical AKI, is rapidly repeatable, and offers all of the significant advantages of a murine surgical model, including access to genetic manipulative techniques, low cost relative to large animals, and ease of use. Our group has developed extensive experience with use of this model to assess a number of organ-specific outcomes in AKI.14,15
The normothermic model of cardiac arrest and cardiopulmonary resuscitation in the mouse offers multiple avenues of evaluation in a model which replicates the pathophysiology and morphology of the most common clinical cause of AKI, whole-body hypoperfusion. Hypothesis testing may be aided by access to a panoply of genetic manipulation techniques and the well-understood and characterized anatomy and physiology of the laboratory mouse.
As described here, survival in experienced hands is 80%. A…
The authors have nothing to disclose.
Name of the reagent | Company | Catalogue number |
---|---|---|
Potassium Chloride | Abbott Medical | 06653-5 |
Isoflurane | Abbott Medical | 05260-05 (and others) |
Epinephrine HCl | Multiple | Multiple |
Digi-Sense temperature controller | Cole-Palmer | EW-89000-00 |
Angiocath IV Cath | VWR | 381134 |
Frova angled airway introducer | Cook | G27282 |
MicroVent Ventilator for Mice | Harvard Apparatus | 733591 |