A novel method for the evaluation of proximal tubule epithelial cellular necrosis in the intact rat kidney using ethidium homodimer

Background: Ethidium homodimer is a cell-membrane impermeant nuclear fluorochrome that has been widely used to identify necrotic cells in culture. Here, we describe a novel technique for evaluating necrosis of epithelial cells in the proximal tubule that involves perfusing ethidium homodimer through the intact rat kidney. As a positive control for inducing necrosis, rats were treated with 3.5, 1.75, 0.87 and 0.43 mg/kg mercuric chloride (Hg2+, intraperitoneal), treatments which have previously been shown to rapidly cause dose-dependent necrosis of the proximal tubule. Twenty-four h after the administration of Hg2+, ethidium homodimer (5 microM) was perfused through the intact left kidney while the animal was anesthetized. The kidney was then removed, placed in embedding medium, frozen and cryosectioned at a thickness of 5 microm. Sections were permeabilized with -20 degrees C methanol and then stained with 4',6-diamidino-2-phenylindole (DAPI) to label total nuclei. Total cell number was determined from the DAPI staining in random microscopic fields and the number of necrotic cells in the same field was determined by ethidium homodimer labeling.

Results: The Hg2+-treated Animals showed a dose-dependent increase in the number of ethidium labeled cells in the proximal tubule, but not in other segments of the nephron. Other results showed that a nephrotoxic dose of gentamicin also caused a significant increase in the number of ethidium labeled cells in the proximal tubule.

Conclusion: These results indicate that this simple and sensitive perfusion technique can be used to evaluate cellular necrosis in the proximal tubule with the three-dimensional cyto-architecture intact.