A novel rat model of contrast-induced nephropathy based on dehydration

Abstract Background Contrast-induced nephropathy (CIN) is a frequent cause of hospital-acquired acute kidney injury. Previous animal models developed to explore the pathogenesis of CIN were based primarily on surgery or indomethacin treatment. Thus, we sought to explore a novel CIN rat model comparable to the human CIN. Methods and Results Both serum creatinine and tubular injury score were used to assess the successful establishment of the present model. In our study, dehydration duration and the iohexol dosage were found to be the two most important factors to develop a rat CIN model. And, dehydration for 3 days plus furosemide (10mL/kg) injection before iohexol (15mL/kg) administration was demonstrated the optimal strategy. Renal injury induced by 15mL/kg iohexol was almost twice more severe than 10mL/kg. Moreover, significant renal function decrease, morphological damage and mitochondrial dysfunction occurred as early as 6 h after iohexol injection, not 24 h as previous studies reported. Unexpectedly, we firstly discovered that dehydration after iohexol administration did not increase the extent of renal damage, indicating that hydration after contrast media exposure may be ineffective. Conclusions A novel CIN rat model based on dehydration and iohexol exposure was established and validated to assist in understanding and preventing CIN.