Exaggerated renal pathology of partial ablation-induced chronic renal failure in eNOS deficient mice

Abstract

We investigated the role of endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS) in the remnant kidney model of chronic renal failure, by using eNOS-deficient (eNOS-/-) and wild-type mice. There were significant increments of blood urea nitrogen level, plasma creatinine concentration and proteinuria in both wild-type and eNOS-/- mice at 8 weeks after 5/6 nephrectomy, but observed changes were more prominent in eNOS-/- mice. Only 7 out of 30 eNOS-/- mice were alive during 8-week experimental period, whereas survival rate in the wild-type mice was 69%. The glomerular size distribution indicated that the glomeruli of 5/6 nephrectomized eNOS-/- mice tended to be larger compared with cases of wild-type mice. It seems likely that eNOS-derived NO is protective against renal injuries in this disease model. © 2008 Pharmaceutical Society of Japan.