TWO NOVEL METHODS TO ESTABLISH RAT KIDNEY TRANSPLANTATION MODEL

Rat kidney transplantation model is a standard animal model for the anti-rejection research of kidney transplantation. However, the current methods of the model require advanced micro-suture technique and the abdominal adhesions after the surgery hampered the establishment of the retransplantation model. In this research, we introduced a novel, reliable, suture-free orthotopic anastomosis method and a heterotopic rat kidney transplantation model in groin. Donor kidney harvest was according to the common protocol reported before and perfused by cold hypertonic citrate adenine solution. For orthotopic model, left renal vein and renal aorta was divided in both donor and recipient. The donor renal vein and recipient renal aorta was placed through the anastomotic cuff and then everted over the body of cuff and circumferential fixed the vessel to cuff by 8-0 nylon respectively. The vessel-covered cuff was then inserted into donor renal aorta and recipient renal vein and secured with another 8-0 nylon tie separately. Anastomosis completed and subsequent operations were followed the common protocol. For heterotopic model, incision was made in the right groin of recipient to expose the femoral artery and femoral vein. Small branches were ligated, and end-to-side sutures were made by 11-0 nylon to make anastomosis of renal aorta and renal vein to femoral artery and femoral vein. Small incision in the lower abdomen was made to expose the bladder. Abdominal wall was punctured as ureter can be led to bladder and then sutured. Our suture-free anastomosis method decreased the anastomosis time to less than 5 min with a success rate > 90% (30/33). Histopathology showed vascular intima everted over the cuff fused three days after the transplantation. Histopathology of homografts and allografts showed both the two methods ensured the adequate perfusion to build acute rejection model, antibody-mediated rejection model and chronic allograft dysfunction model. We established a novel, easy, suture-free method to build rat kidney transplantation model and the heterotopic rat kidney transplantation model in groin could be used to establish the rat kidney retransplantation model.