The present study investigated the urinary tract toxicity of melamine alone or in combination with cyanuric acid in rats. Male rats were orally administered melamine alone (800 mg/kg) or melamine plus cyanuric acid (50 mg/kg each) for 3 consecutive days. Although melamine treatment did not show any significant difference in body weight, kid- ney or urinary bladder weight, serum blood urea nitrogen (BUN) or creatinine levels, it caused a decrease in urinary pH and mild histopathological alterations in the kidney and urinary bladder. In contrast, co-administration of melamine and cyanuric acid induced a decrease in body weight, an increase in kidneys and urinary bladder weights, and an elevation in serum BUN and creatinine levels, which were not observed in animals treated with melamine alone. His- topathological examination showed that the incidence and severity of histopathological lesions in the kidney and uri- nary bladder were much higher than those in the melamine group. Urinalysis revealed an increase in urine occult blood, leukocytes and protein and a decrease in urinary pH. These results indicate that concomitant administration of cyanuric acid synergistically potentiated the urinary tract toxicity induced by melamine in rats. In this study, we first demon- strated the synergistic toxic effects of melamine in combina- tion with cyanuric acid on urinary bladder and urinalysis in rats.

• In-Chul Lee(College of Veterinary Medicine, Chonnam National University)
• Sung-Hwan Kim(College of Veterinary Medicine, Chonnam National University)
• Hyung-Sun Baek(College of Veterinary Medicine, Chonnam National University)
• Sung-Soo Kang(College of Veterinary Medicine, Chonnam National University)
• Jong-Choon Kim(College of Veterinary Medicine, Chonnam National University) Corresponding Author