Cisplatin-Induced Acute Kidney Injury Model

Male C57BL/6 mice (7 weeks old, 20–23 g) were purchased from the Hubei Experimental Animal Research Center. All mice were housed in the experimental animal center at the Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology with a 12/12-h light/dark cycle. After a minimum of 1 week of acclimatization, the mice (n = 5/group) were randomly divided into four groups. Two groups of mice were gavage pretreated daily with normal saline (NS) for 3 days. The third group was gavage pretreated daily with HQH (6 g/kg; Qidong GaiTianLi Pharmaceutical Co.; dissolved by NS, 0.4 g/ml) for 3 days. A single nephrotoxic dose of cisplatin (20 mg/kg; Nanjing Pharmaceutical Co.) was administered via intraperitoneal injection (ip) to the HQH-pretreated group and one NS-pretreated group on the third day 30 minutes before the pretreatment. A single dose of NS (0.015 ml/g) was administered ip to one NS-pretreated group as a control. The last group was administered ip a single dose of dexamethasone (Dex) (4 mg/kg; MaAnShan Fengyuan Pharmaceutical Co.) 30 minutes before cisplatin (20 mg/kg) ip. The mice were sacrificed on Day 3. All studies were approved by the Animal Care and Use Committee (ACUC) in Tongji Hospital and conducted in accordance with NIH guidelines.