Establishment of a hyperuricemia rat model by stimulation of high temperature-humidity environment / 中华内分泌代谢杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective:To establish a hyperuricemia rat model through the high temperature-humidity treatment, and monitor its vital signs and biochemical indicator characteristics, as well as observe the changes of renal histomorphology and ultrastructure.Methods:Male SD rats were randomly divided into control(CON) group, potassium oxonate(PO) group and high temperature-humidity(HTH) group, 6 rats each. The experiment lasted for 6 consecutive weeks. Rats from PO group was given 250 mg/kg PO by gavage every day. The rats from HTH group were treated with a special thermostatic incubator for one hour each day after gavaging 250 mg/kg PO. Serum uric acid, creatinine and other indicators were detected every 2 weeks. After 6 weeks, the kidney tissues were collected. The morphological changes and urate crystal deposition of kidney tissues were observed by hematoxylin-eosin staining, Masson′s trichrome staining and gomori staining, while the ultramicrostructural changes of kidney were observed by transmission electron microscope.Results:Two weeks after the experiment, the average serum uric acid values of PO group and HTH group increased significantly, HTH group was higher than PO and CON groups[(133.9±17.8), (107.6±12.4), and (85.7±4.1) μmol/L, P=0.001]. And after 6 weeks, the HTH group was still higher than the other two groups[(115.1±27.8), (82.7±13.9), and (72.9±17.8) μmol/L, P=0.008). The average serum creatinine in HTH group was slightly higher than that in PO group and CON group at 6 weeks[(46.2±4.7), (38.1±6.0), and (28.3±6.3) μmol/L, P=0.001]. Light microscope showed partial renal tubular dilatation in PO group, but renal tubular epithelial cells swelling and inflammatory cells infiltration were more significant in HTH group. The ultrastructural changes such as glomerular podocyte swelling were found in HTH group by transmission electron microscope. Conclusion:In this study, we had successfully established a hyperuricemia rat model by simulating the high temperature-humidity environment combined with potassium oxyzinate after 2 weeks of experiment. After 6 weeks of modeling, it was found that the high temperature-humidity induced rat models possessed a relatively higher and stabler serum uric acid level than that of the traditional chemical medicine induced rats. The method can be applied to the research of pathogenesis and pharmacotherapy of hyperuricemia caused by high temperature-humidity environment.