ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the reported functional and structural changes in the kidney in the rat model during the early and late phases of the disease and highlights the significant progress that this model has provided in the understanding of the pathogenesis and the clinical management of diabetic nephropathy in humans. The streptozotocin (STZ)-induced model of Type I diabetes mellitus in the rat has been the most widely studied model to demonstrate the hemodynamic and structural alterations of the diabetic state on the kidney. The mouse model of STZ-induced diabetes is far less well studied, mostly because of technical issues related to the relative resistance of this species to the induction of insulin deficiency by STZ1 and to the difficulties in monitoring systemic and renal hemodynamic and functional parameters. The studies led by Brenner and colleagues in the STZ diabetic rat have profoundly affected how physiologists and nephrologists understand the glomerular hemodynamics of diabetes.
