Diabetic nephropathy is associated with oxidative stress and decreased renal nitric oxide production.

The pathogenesis of diabetic nephropathy remains far from clear, partly due to the lack of a suitable animal model that mimics human renal disease in type 2 diabetes. In this study, the natural history of renal manifestations in ZSF1 rats, a recently developed rodent model of type 2 diabetes, is described. Male ZSF1 rats developed obesity and hyperglycemia by 20 weeks of age on a high-carbohydrate diet.

Vanadate causes hypokalemic distal renal tubular acidosis.

Considerable evidence supports the presence of an H(+)-K(+)-ATPase along the mammalian nephron. Inhibition of this enzyme might be expected to reduce acid excretion while increasing potassium excretion, thus causing hypokalemic distal renal tubular acidosis (RTA). In this study we administered vanadate at a dose of 5 mg/kg ip for 10 days to rats.