Abstract
The study evaluated the effects of ethanol extract of Anthocleista vogelii stem bark (EASB) on renal function indices and lipid profile in rats induced renal injury with CCl4. Following a completely randomized experimental design, 30 rats were randomly distributed into 6 groups (n = 5). Group 1 was the normal control, group 2 was the negative control while group 3 was the silymarin control. Groups 4 – 6 were CCl4 induced but treated with 100, 200, and 400 mg/kg EASB/day respectively. The study was conducted using appropriate methods. The results showed that the negative control had a significant (P<0.05) increase in the serum urea, creatinine, cholesterol, triacylglycerol (TAG), low-density lipoprotein (LDL) concentrations, and a significant reduction in the serum high-density lipoprotein (HDL) concentration relative to the normal control. Treatments with EASB lowered the serum creatinine, urea, and TAG concentrations when compared with the negative and silymarin controls respectively. The EASB at 100 mg/kg restored the serum HDL concentration to a normal level but 200 and 400 mg/kg EASB/day caused no significant (P>0.05) increase in the serum HDL concentrations relative to the negative control. The rats treated with EASB had elevated serum LDL and cholesterol concentrations in comparison with the negative and silymarin controls. Treatments with EASB prevented the tubular necrosis, degeneration, and infiltration of inflammatory leucocytes observed in the kidney histomorphology of the negative control. These findings suggest that EASB improves renal function and some lipid profile parameters but could cause dyslipidemia when taken in excess dose.
Highlights
Carbon tetrachloride (CCl4) is a very potent hepatotoxicant and is widely used in an experimental study to evaluate the therapeutic properties of medicinal plants and synthetic drugs in preventing damage to vital organs and tissues in the body or causing restoration of damaged organs or tissues to normalcy
The serum creatinine concentration is a very reliable glomerular filtration indicator and its rate of synthesis in the body approximately equals its rate of elimination and as such, the serum concentration of creatinine is considered inversely proportional to the prevailing glomerular filtration rate
The CCl4 induced rats treated with 100 and 200 mg/kg EASB/day had the best recovery from renal injury and improved renal function depicted by very low serum creatinine concentrations slightly below the normal control and suggest that EASB has better therapeutic effects at lower concentrations
Summary
Carbon tetrachloride (CCl4) is a very potent hepatotoxicant and is widely used in an experimental study to evaluate the therapeutic properties of medicinal plants and synthetic drugs in preventing damage to vital organs and tissues in the body or causing restoration of damaged organs or tissues to normalcy. Exposure to a high dose of CCl4 has been shown to cause harm to various organs and tissues in the body including the kidneys, liver, lung, brain, testis, heart, etc. Medicinal plants are generally recognized as plants whose parts contain chemical constituents with therapeutic potentials and can serve as precursors for the synthesis of valuable drugs (Ogamba et al, 2010). Plants serve as great sources of antioxidants and anti-ageing agents with curative potentials attributed to their phytochemical constituents including flavonoids, alkaloids, terpenoids, and phenolics to mention a few.
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