The Protective Effect of Erdostein on Renal Injury in Diabetic Rats

OBJECTIVE: Oxidative stress plays a role in the pathogenesis of diabetic nephropathy. It has been reported in many studies that antioxidant therapy may decrease complications related to diabetes mellitus. We aimed to evaluate the protective effects of erdostein on diabetic renal injury in diabetic rats. MATERIAL and METHODS: Thirty rats were randomly divided into 5 experimental groups (Group 1: control, group 2: erdostein, group 3: alloxan, group 4: alloxan+erdostein, and group 5: alloxan+insulin, n=6 each). Rats were made diabetic using alloxan injection intraperiteonally. Erdostein (10 mg/kg/day) orally and insulin two times a day (3 g/kg) intraperitoneally were administered for four weeks. All rats were then sacrificed and kidney histopathological examinations were performed by light microscopy. RESULTS: The diabetic rats had diabetic nephropathic changes in the kidney on histological examination but the rats treated with erdostein showed significantly less histopathological changes, similar to the control group compared with the diabetic rats not treated with erdostein (p<0.05). The histopathological changes in insulin-treated rats were significantly less than the diabetic rats (p<0.05). The rats treated with erdostein had histopathological changes similar to insulin-treated rats (p>0.05). CONCLUSION: Based on the present data, we conclude that erdostein may show protective effects on renal injury due to diabetes mellitus.