Influential factors on the establishment of experimental diabetic nephropathy in rats

Objective To investigate the effect of the duration of high-fat-diet feeding and various doses of streptozotocin(STZ) on the model achievement ratio and mortality of high-fat-diet and streptozotocin-induced diabetic nephropathy(DN) rat model,and to determine the preferred plan for the establishment of DN rats model.Methods Male Sprague-Dawley rats(n=56) were fed high fat diet for four or six weeks to induce insulin resistance and then injected with streptozotocin(STZ,35 mg·kg-1 or 40 mg·kg-1 intraperitoneal) to establish a rat model of DN.Results Fasting blood glucose,the kidney weight/body weight(KW/BW) ratio,collagen,transforming growth factor-β1(TGF-β1) in DN rats which were fed high-fat-diet for four weeks plus STZ(40 mg·kg-1) and fed high-fat-diet for six weeks plus STZ(35 mg·kg-1) had statistically significant difference(P0.05 or P0.01) when compared with normal group rats.However,it presents a high mortality in high-fat-diet for four weeks plus STZ(40 mg·kg-1)-induced DN rats.Conclusion The model rats that fed with high-fat-diet for six weeks followed by intraperitoneal injection of STZ(35 mg·kg-1) proves to be the optimal one.