To establish a rat model of crush syndrome (CS) and preliminarily clarify the injury characteristics and functional changes in kidney, heart, and lung.

Sixteen male SD rats were randomly divided into the sham group and CS group with 8 rats each. In the CS group, the hind limbs of rats were crushed under a pressure of 3 kg for 12 h by means of a digital animal crush injury simulation platform to establish the CS model. Twenty-four hours after successful model establishment, the rats were measured in the levels of serum creatine kinase, creatinine, urea nitrogen, and troponin, etc. The bronchoalveolar lavage fluid were detected for the number of cells, protein concentration, and myeloperoxidase (MPO) activity. Echocardiography was performed to detect the changes of cardiac function. Staining methods of PAS and HE were used to observe the histopathological changes in kidney, lung, and heart of the rats.

Compared with the sham group, the CS group showed higher levels of serum creatine kinase, creatinine, and urea nitrogen (all P<0.05). The CS group also displayed significant increase in cell numbers (P=0.032), protein concentration, and MPO activity (P=0.015) in the bronchoalveolar lavage fluid. And the CS group diclosed obvious cardiac diastolic dysfunction as well (P<0.05). Besides, histopathological observations found detachment of renal tubular epithelial cells, expansion of renal tubules, renal tubular cast, and increase in the number of pulmonary interstitial cells.

Twenty-four hours after the crush injury, the rats showed significant dysfunction in the kidneys, heart, and lung, and the pathological damage to the kidney and lung was obvious.