Psammomys obesus, a particularly important animal model for the study of the human diabetic nephropathy.

The Psammomys obesus lives in natural desert habitat on low energy (LE) diet, however when maintained in laboratory conditions with high energy (HE) diet it exhibits pathological metabolic changes resembling those of type 2 diabetes. We have evaluated and correlated the histopathology, metabolic and functional renal alterations occurring in the diabetic Psammomys. Renal function determined by measuring glomerular filtration rate (GFR), protein excretion, protein/creatinine ratio and morpho-immunocytochemical evaluations were performed on HE diet diabetic animals and compared to LE diet control animals.