Abstract
The present study was aimed to evaluate the influence of flaxseed oil on renal toxicity induced by thioacetamide in male rats. The animals were distributed into four groups. Rats of the first group were served as control. Rats of the second group were exposed to thioacetamide. Rats of the third group were treated with flaxseed oil and thioacetamide. Rats of the fourth group were treated with flaxseed oil. Significant increases of blood creatinine and uric acid were observed in TAA-treated rats after three weeks. In thioacetamide group, the levels of serum creatinine, blood urea nitrogen and uric acid were significantly elevated after six weeks. Histopathologically, the renal sections from thioacetamide-treated rats showed severe alterations in the structure of renal corpuscles including a degeneration of glomeruli and Bowman’s capsules. Administration of flaxseed oil protects the observed biochemical and histopathological alterations induced by thioacetamide exposure. Hence, the results of this study suggest that flaxseed oil protects against thioacetamide-induced renal injury and the protective influence of flaxseed oil may be attributed to its antioxidant role. The aim of the present study is to investigate the influence of flaxseed oil against TAA-induced renal injury in male rats.
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Key Points
Thioacetamide (TAA) is a classic liver toxic chemical that causes liver cirrhosis and hepatic neoplasms at medium and long terms respectively in experimental animals. TAA causes liver fibrosis and injuries of kidney, brain, lung, stomach, intestine and spleen. In the present study, the levels of serum creatinine, BUN and uric acid were statistically increased in rats treated with only TAA. Findings were confirmed by the histopathological alterations of renal corpuscles. It is known that the increase of creatinine, BUN and uric acid in serum indicates renal injury. The disturbance of kidney functions led to the decline of creatinine excretion and increase its level in blood which accompanied with renal disorder. Pretreatment of rats with flaxseed oil improved the biochemical and histopathological alterations induced by TAA exposure. This indicated the effectiveness of flaxseed oil in prevention of TAA nephrotoxicity. The possible mechanism may be attributed to its antioxidant effect which inhibits and blocks the influence of TAA and to block and reduce the oxidation processes which led to the prevention of oxidative stress. Previous research has shown that flaxseed oil attenuated the alterations of these measured parameters and the renal histological structures induced by sodium arsenate exposure. Based on the present findings, this study shows that flaxseed oil produces significant anti-nephrotoxicity influence in TAA treated rats. Further studies are needed to determine the mechanism action of flaxseed oil against the nephrotoxicity induced by TAA and other toxic factors.