Administration of retinoic acid to pregnant mice increases the number of fetal mouse glomeruli

Shohei Fukunaga; Noriko Ogawa; Akihiro Matsumoto; Takafumi Ito; Kazuaki Tanabe; Hiroki Otani

doi:10.1016/j.bbrep.2022.101245

Administration of retinoic acid to pregnant mice increases the number of fetal mouse glomeruli

Biochem Biophys Rep. 2022 Mar 8:30:101245. doi: 10.1016/j.bbrep.2022.101245. eCollection 2022 Jul.

Authors

Shohei Fukunaga¹, Noriko Ogawa², Akihiro Matsumoto², Takafumi Ito¹, Kazuaki Tanabe¹, Hiroki Otani²

Affiliations

¹ Department of Internal Medicine IV, Shimane University Faculty of Medicine, Izumo, Shimane, 693-8501, Japan.
² Department of Developmental Biology, Shimane University Faculty of Medicine, Izumo, Shimane, 693-8501, Japan.

Abstract

The prevalence of chronic kidney disease (CKD) is increasing worldwide, and CKD is a serious global health problem. Low glomerular number is one of the risk factors for CKD; therefore, the glomerular number is associated with the risk of CKD. Increasing the glomerular number above normal levels may reduce the risk of CKD. It has been reported that, in vitro, the addition of retinoic acid (RA) to the culture medium increases the glomerular number. However, there is no report of an increase in glomerular number above normal levels with the addition of RA in vivo. In this study, RA (20 mg/kg) was administered intraperitoneally to pregnant mice once at embryonic day (E) 10.5, E12.5, E14.5, or E16.5. The fetuses were harvested at E18.5 and fetal mouse kidneys were evaluated. Fetal kidney volume and weight were significantly increased in the E16.5 group compared to the control group. The total glomerular number in the E16.5 group was also approximately 1.46 times higher than that in the control group. In summary, we established a method to increase the glomerular number in the fetal kidney by administration of RA to pregnant mice at E16.5. These results will facilitate the investigation of whether CKD risk is reduced when the glomerular number increases above normal.

Keywords: CKD, chronic kidney disease; Chronic kidney disease; E, embryonic day; GA, glomerular area; GV, glomerular volume; Glomerular number; Mouse fetus; RA, retinoic acid; Retinoic acid.