Effects of beta-glucan on protection of young and aged rats from renal ischemia and reperfusion injury

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Ischemia reperfusion injury is one of the leading causes of acute renal failure which is a common clinical event leading to development of chronic kidney disease and a high mortality; especially in elderly people. beta-glucans are glucose polymer groups with free-radical scavenger, macrophage activator, and immune defense inducer functions. We designed this study to determine the possible protective effects of beta-glucan against renal ischemia reperfusion injury comparatively in young and aged rats. METHODS: Rats were assigned to the following groups: Young and aged sham, young and aged ischemia reperfusion, young and aged beta-glucan, young and aged ischemia reperfusion+beta-glucan. At the end of the experiment, following collection of blood samples, rats were sacrificed and kidneys were removed for histopathological and biochemical examination. RESULTS: Mean tissue histopathological damage scores of young beta-glucan group was lower than that of young ischemia reperfusion group, and of aged beta-glucan group was lower than that of aged ischemia reperfusion group. Urea and creatinine levels of young and aged of sham group and beta-glucan administered groups were all lower than those of ischemia reperfusion and beta-glucan+ischemia reperfusion groups. Oxidative stress indexes of ischemia reperfusion groups were increased however; oxidative stress indexes of beta-glucan administered to young and aged rats were lower than those of ischemia reperfusion groups. CONCLUSIONS: We conclude that beta-glucan is effective to protect kidneys from ischemia reperfusion-induced oxidative damage, especially in young rats (Fig. 6, Ref. 45). Text in PDF www.elis.sk.