Here we present a reliable method to study adult kidney regeneration by inducing acute kidney injury by gentamicin injection. We show that injury is dependent on gentamicin dosage and environmental temperature using in situ hybridization to label lhx1a+ developing new nephrons.
Abstract
The kidney is essential for fluid homeostasis, blood pressure regulation and filtration of waste from the body. The fundamental unit of kidney function is the nephron. Mammals are able to repair existing nephrons after injury, but lose the ability to form new nephrons soon after birth. In contrast to mammals, adult fish produce new nephrons (neonephrogenesis) throughout their lives in response to growth requirements or injury. Recently, lhx1a has been shown to mark nephron progenitor cells in the adult zebrafish kidney, however mechanisms controlling the formation of new nephrons after injury remain unknown. Here we show our method for robust and reproducible injury in the adult zebrafish kidney by intraperitoneal (i.p.) injection of gentamicin, which uses a noninvasive visual screening process to select for fish with strong but nonlethal injury. Using this method, we can determine optimal gentamicin dosages for injury and go on to demonstrate the effect of higher temperatures on kidney regeneration in zebrafish.
This work was supported by NIH grant F32DK091998 to CNK; NIH grant RO1DK041071 and Harvard Stem Cell Institute grant D001229 to IAD. The authors thank Neil Hukriede for the lhx1ain situ probe.
Materials
Name of Material/ Equipment
Company
Catalog Number
Comments/Description
gentamicin sodium sulfate
Sigma
G1264
TOXIC, purity varies from batch to batch
plastic transfer pipets
Fisher
13-711-7M
1 ml Norm-Ject syringes
Electron Microscopy Sciences
72520
green plastic syringes, ordinary 1ml syringes are OK, but harder to read accurately
30G1/2 needles
Becton Dickinson
305106
ethyl 3-aminobenzoaate methanesulfonate salt (tricaine)
Kamei, C. N., Liu, Y., Drummond, I. A. Kidney Regeneration in Adult Zebrafish by Gentamicin Induced Injury. J. Vis. Exp. (102), e51912, doi:10.3791/51912 (2015).