Crystal Formation in the Renal Tubules of Rats Induced by Ethylene Glycol Administration and Magnesium Deficiency

Abstract

Many previous studies have employed diet-inducing hypomagnesemic or hyperoxaluric protocols in experiments with rats and other animals to investigate aspects of renal calculus disease. Several early investigators focused on the renal tubules and papillae in an attempt to delineate the earliest histological and ultrastructural stages of hydroxyapatite deposition induced by hypomagnesemic protocols¹. Later investigators employed vitamin B6 deficient diets and ethylene glycol administration to induce hyperoxaluria and subsequent renal tubular calcium oxalate crystal formation^{2, 3, 4}. More recently intraperitoneal injection of sodium oxalate has been used to induce calcium oxalate intranephronic calculosis^{5, 6, 7}. The objectives of the present study were to investigate the combined effects of hyperoxaluric and hypomagnesemic protocols in the rat kidney and to describe ultrastructural features of the formation of the experimentally induced crystals.