IACUC

Renal Capsule Grafting In Rats and Mice

IACUC Standard Procedure

Effective Date: August 2024

Description of Procedure:

Follow anesthesia and analgesic regimens as outlined in Section I., Agents, in the IACUC protocol under which surgery is performed and in UCSF Rodent Anesthesia Guideline. Surgical plane of anesthesia is required and multimodal analgesia (e.g., local anesthetic, NSAID, opioid) is recommended. Sterile survival surgery must follow IACUC Surgery Guideline.

Bilateral grafting is not recommended and must be justified and approved by the IACUC.

Approach:

The left kidney sits more caudal than the right and is usually easier to access. A small incision (1-2cm) is made in the skin of the left flank, behind the last rib and parallell to the spine, in the lower third of the abdomen.
The body wall is then incised to expose the left kidney within the abdomen.
Try not to grab the kidney with instruments. Kidney may be elevated using gentle compression through the body wall or by grasping the surrounding tissue.
A small nick is made in the kidney capsule using fine scissors. Try to avoid making it bleed.
A small pocket is created between capsule and kidney parenchyma.
The graft is inserted, or cells are infused via Hamilton syringe and tubing (avoid overflow to ensure capsule sealing). It is recommended that grafts do not exceed 2mm in any dimension as it may result in central necrosis of the graft and inhibit vascularization.
Hemostasis is verified, and the kidney is placed back into the abdominal cavity.
The abdominal wall is closed with absorbable sutures and the skin is closed with surgical clips or monofilament sutures.
Recover animal according to UCSF Rodent Anesthesia Guidelines

Protocol:

Section I. Agents:

This procedure requires appropriate anesthetics and analgesics. List anesthetics in Section I.1 and analgesics in I.4. List experimental agents that will be grafted or infused into renal capsule in Section I.5.

Section J. Potential adverse effects to be considered: