Increased water intake reduces long-term renal and cardiovascular disease progression in experimental polycystic kidney disease

• Published in: PloS one 2019-01, Vol.14 (1), p.e0209186-e0209186
• Main Authors: Sagar, Priyanka S, Zhang, Jennifer, Luciuk, Magda, Mannix, Carly, Wong, Annette T Y, Rangan, Gopala K
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Analysis; Animal models; Animals; Biology and Life Sciences; Blood pressure; Body water; Body weight; Cardiovascular disease; Cardiovascular diseases; Cardiovascular Diseases - etiology; Cardiovascular Diseases - physiopathology; Cardiovascular Diseases - prevention & control; Collagen; Computer simulation; Creatinine - blood; Cysts; Development and progression; Disease Models, Animal; Disease Progression; Drinking; Drinking water; Enlargement; Female; Fibrosis; Health aspects; Hospitals; Humans; Hypertension; Kidney - pathology; Kidney - physiopathology; Kidney diseases; Kidneys; Male; Males; Medical research; Medicine; Medicine and Health Sciences; Metabolism; Nephronophthisis; Organ Size; Osmolar Concentration; Physical Sciences; Polycystic kidney; Polycystic kidney disease; Polycystic Kidney Diseases - complications; Polycystic Kidney Diseases - pathology; Polycystic Kidney Diseases - therapy; Proteinuria; Rats; Rats, Inbred Lew; Renal failure; Sodium; Urine; Water intake; Water intakes; Water treatment
• ISSN: 1932-6203; 1932-6203
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0209186

Polycystic kidney disease (PKD) is the most common inherited cause of kidney failure and currently has limited treatment options. Increasing water intake reduces renal cyst growth in the pck rat (a genetic ortholog of autosomal recessive PKD) but it is not clear if this beneficial effect is present in other models of PKD. In this study, we tested the hypothesis that high water intake (HWI) reduces the progression of cystic renal disease in Lewis polycystic kidney (LPK) rats (a genetic ortholog of human nephronophthisis-9). Groups of female and male LPK (n = 8-10 per group) and Lewis (n = 4 per group) rats received water ad libitum supplemented with or without 5% glucose [to simulate HWI or normal water intake (NWI) respectively] from postnatal weeks 3 to 16. Water intake increased ~1.3-fold in the LPK+HWI group compared to LPK+NWI rats between weeks 3 to 10 but the differences were not significant at later timepoints. In LPK rats, HWI reduced the increases in the kidney to body weight ratio by 54% at week 10 and by 42% at week 16 compared to NWI (both p