ABSTRACT
Diabetic nephropathy in the human is one of the major secondary complications of diabetes. Diabetic nephropathy is the clinical term used to describe diabetic renal disease when it has progressed to the stage of a persistent proteinuria. Since both spontaneous and induced diabetic animal models are available, comparisons of the types of lesions and the rate of development can be made. A number of rodent models of diabetes have been developed. The main advantage of rodents as experimental models of disease is that they are less expensive to acquire and maintain than larger species. The streptozotocin or alloxan diabetic rat is one of the best defined models of diabetic renal disease. The microscopic glomerular lesions seen in the diabetic rat resemble the lesions of early human diabetes. The glomerular basement membrane (GBM) is the central layer in the glomerular capillary wall between the epithelial and endothelial cells.
