Medaka fish, Oryzias latipes, as a model for human obesity-related glomerulopathy

Obesity, an ongoing significant public health problem, is a part of complex disease characterized as metabolic syndrome. Medaka and zebrafish are useful aquatic experimental animals widely used in the field of toxicology and environmental health sciences and as a human disease models. In medaka, simple feeding of a high fat diet (HFD) can induce body weight gain, excessive accumulation of visceral adipose tissue, hyperglycemia, hyperlipidemia, and steatohepatitis, which mimics human metabolic syndrome. In the present study, to explore the possibility that the adult medaka fed with HFD (HFD-medaka) can be used as an animal model for human metabolic syndrome-associated glomerular disease, including obesity-related glomerulopathy (ORG), we analyzed structural alterations and protein expression in the mesonephric kidney of HFD-medaka. We found that the histopathology was consistent with glomerulomegaly accompanied by the dilation of glomerular capillaries and proliferative expansion of the mesangium, a condition partially comparable to human ORG. Moreover, expressions of several kinds of kidney disease-related proteins (such as MYH9, SM22α) were significantly elevated. Thus, the HFD-medaka has a high potential as an animal model useful for exploring the mechanism underling human ORG.

► Medaka fed with a high fat diet (HFD-medaka) mimicked human metabolic syndrome.
► HFD-medaka displayed glomerulomegaly and proliferative mesangial lesion.
► Several renal disease-related proteins were up-regulated in HFD-medaka kidney.
► HFD-medaka can be used as an animal model for human obesity-related glomerulopathy.