2017 ACVIM Forum Research Abstract Program

None of the cats from which tissues were collected were euthanized because of the study. Renal tissues were collected from 29 cats with IRIS Stage II -IV CKD (mean age 14.7 years; range 8 -20.5 years of age) and 12 cats with a creatinine concentration < 1.6 mg/dL, and a urine specific gravity of > 1.035. The cats with normal creatinine concentrations were divided into those < 1.5 years of age (n = 8 cats) and > 10 years of age (n = 4 cats). Interstitial nephritis was the predominant histopathological finding in the CKD group and was minimal to absent in the 12 cats with normal creatinine concentrations. An immunohistochemistry technique for semi-quantitative measurement of alpha-enolase protein expression in feline tissue was optimized utilizing a commercially available monoclonal alpha-enolase antibody. Each section of kidney was evaluated for positive immunoreactivity and assigned a score based on signal intensity-immunoreactivity-ranging from 0 to 3. Scoring was defined as follows: 0 = no staining, 1 = light brown/tan, 2 = moderate brown staining, 3 = dark brown which may obscure the nucleus. Mean scores between young, geriatric and CKD were compared using Kruskal-Wallis with Dunn's post hoc analysis.