title: Validation of high-throughput methods for measuring blood urea nitrogen and urinary albumin concentrations in mice.
abstract: Chronic kidney disease is a substantial medical and economic burden. Animal models, including mice, are a crucial component of kidney disease research; however, recent studies disprove the ability of autoanalyzer methods to accurately quantify plasma creatinine levels, an established marker of kidney disease, in mice. Therefore, we validated autoanalyzer methods for measuring blood urea nitrogen (BUN) and urinary albumin concentrations, 2 common markers of kidney disease, in samples from mice. We used high-performance liquid chromatography to validate BUN concentrations measured using an autoanalyzer, and we utilized mouse albumin standards to determine the accuracy of the autoanalyzer over a wide range of albumin concentrations. We observed a significant, linear correlation between BUN concentrations measured by autoanalyzer and high-performance liquid chromatography. We also found a linear relationship between known and measured albumin concentrations, although the autoanalyzer method underestimated the known amount of albumin by 3.5- to 4-fold. We confirmed that plasma and urine constituents do not interfere with the autoanalyzer methods for measuring BUN and urinary albumin concentrations. In addition, we verified BUN and albuminuria as useful markers to detect kidney disease in aged mice and mice with 5/6-nephrectomy. We conclude that autoanalyzer methods are suitable for high-throughput analysis of BUN and albumin concentrations in mice. The autoanalyzer accurately quantifies BUN concentrations in mouse plasma samples and is useful for measuring urinary albumin concentrations when used with mouse albumin standards.
authors.affiliation: The Jackson Laboratory, Bar Harbor, Maine, USA.
authors.forename: Susan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Grindle
authors.forename: Cheryl
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Garganta
authors.forename: Susan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Sheehan
authors.forename: Joe
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Gile
authors.forename: Andree
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Lapierre
authors.forename: Harry
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Whitmore
authors.forename: Beverly
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Paigen
authors.forename: Keith
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: DiPetrillo
mesh_terms: D000418:Albumins / Q000592:standards; D000419:Albuminuria / Q000652:urine*; D000818:Animals; D001322:Autoanalysis / Q000379:methods / Q000592:standards; D001774:Blood Chemical Analysis / Q000379:methods* / Q000592:standards; D001806:Blood Urea Nitrogen; D002851:Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid / Q000379:methods; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D007676:Kidney Failure, Chronic / Q000097:blood / Q000652:urine; D008297:Male; D051379:Mice; D008805:Mice, Inbred A; D008810:Mice, Inbred C57BL; D008811:Mice, Inbred DBA; D012015:Reference Standards; D013045:Species Specificity; D016482:Urinalysis / Q000379:methods*
chemical_list: D000418:Albumins