Nephropathy in diabetic db/db mice is accelerated by high protein diet and improved by the SGLT2 inhibitor dapagliflozin

Sisse Andersen Nørgaard*, François Briand, Fredrik Wolfhagen Sand, Elisabeth Douglas Galsgaard, Henrik Søndergaard, Dorte Bratbo Sørensen, Thierry Sulpice

*Corresponding author for this work
    9 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    The widely used db/db mouse as a model of diabetic nephropathy (DN) only mimics the early changes in human DN with a slow disease progression. Since high protein diet (HPD) has been reported to affect progression of nephropathy in both humans and mice, we investigated whether HPD could accelerate nephropathy in db/db mice. Diabetic (C57BLKS-Leprdb/db) and non-diabetic (C57BLKS-Leprdb/+) mice were fed either HPD (60 kcal% protein) or control diet (22 kcal% protein), from 7 to 22 weeks of age. In db/db mice, HPD was found to significantly increase all measured readouts of renal injury including albuminuria, renal hypertrophy, mesangial expansion and expression of a panel of DN related markers, including KIM-1, Ki67 and Collagen III, which increased on both gene and protein levels. Furthermore, HPD activated the Renin-angiotensin system significantly and increased hyperfiltration, measured as reduced plasma Cystatin C. Usefulness of the HPD db/db mouse as a model for faster drug efficacy studies was investigated in a 5-week treatment study with the SGLT2 inhibitor, dapagliflozin. Expectedly, dapagliflozin normalised blood glucose levels and improved glucose intolerance in both HPD and control diet mice. Only HPD db/db mice, not the control diet db/db mice, showed clear hyperfiltration that was significantly reduced with dapagliflozin treatment at both 2 and 4 weeks of treatment. In conclusion, these studies confirm that HPD can significantly accelerate progression of nephropathy in db/db mice, and that this model could be useful for rapid evaluation of drug targets with potential to ameliorate features of DN, especially glomerular hyperfiltration.

    Original languageEnglish
    Article number172537
    JournalEuropean Journal of Pharmacology
    Volume860
    ISSN0014-2999
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 2019

    Keywords

    • Dapagliflozin
    • db/db mouse
    • Diabetic nephropathy
    • High protein diet
    • Hyperfiltration
    • Sodium glucose transporter 2

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