Protective Effects of Pycnogenol against Ischemia Reperfusion-Induced Oxidative Renal Injury in Rats

Figures & data

Table 1  Effects of pycnogenol (10 mg/kg) treatment on some biochemical parametersin the serum of experimental groups

Parameter	Sham group		I/R group
	Saline-treated	PYC-treated	Saline-treated	PYC-treated
BUN (U/L)	17.8 ± 2.5	16.6 ± 2.7	46.4 ± 5.8	23.9 ± 3.3^†
Creatinine (U/L)	0.58 ± 0.09	0.53 ± 0.06	1.98 ± 0.29	0.95 ± 0.13^†
LDH (U/L)	1040 ± 141	885 ± 119	3363 ± 259	1774 ± 408^†
TNF-α (pg/mL)	5.9 ± 1.1	5.2 ± 0.8	41.6 ± 9.1	17.1 ± 2.9^†
IL-1β (pg/mL)	10.1 ± 1.7	7.8 ± 1.6	54.3 ± 6.3	24.1 ± 4.6^‡
IL-6 (pg/mL)	24.9 ± 3.6	19.1 ± 3.1	77.1 ± 8.5	29.9 ± 7.1^‡

Data are the mean±SEM of six animals.

*p < 0.001, compared to saline-treated sham group.

^†p < 0.01, ^‡p < 0.001, compared with the saline-treated ischemia-reperfusion (I/R) group.

Abbreviations: PYC = pycnogenol, BUN = blood urea nitrogen, LDH = lactate dehydrogenase, TNF-α = tumour necrosis factor-α, IL = interleukin.

Figure 1.  (a) Glutathione (GSH) and (b) malondialdehyde (MDA) levels in the kidney tissue of saline- or pycnogenol (PYC)-treated I/R groups and sham groups. Each group consists of six animals. * p < 0.05, *** p < 0.001, compared to saline-treated sham group. ⁺p < 0.05, compared to saline-treated I/R group.

Figure 2.  (a) Myeloperoxidase and (b) Na⁺-K⁺ ATPase activity in the kidney tissue of saline- or pycnogenol (PYC)-treated I/R groups and sham groups. Each group consists of six animals. ** p < 0.01, *** p < 0.001, compared to saline-treated sham group. ⁺p < 0.05, ⁺⁺p < 0.01, compared to saline-treated I/R group.

Figure 3.  (a) Regular morphology of kidney was observed in sham group. (b) Degenerated Bowman's space and glomerular structure (*), severe vascular congestion (arrow), and degenerated tubular epithelium (arrow head) and inflammatory cell infiltration (i) were observed in the IR groups. (c) Quite regular Bowman's space and glomerular structure, mild vascular congestion (v), and degenerated tubular epithelium (arrow) were observed in PYC-treated IR group. H&E staining, original magnifications: 200×, inset: 400×.