•  
  •  
 

Article Type

Article

Abstract

Recombinant human erythropoietin(rHuEPO) has emerged as a newrenoprotectiveagent against variousacutekidney injuries. ExperiencewithrHuEPO in chronic kidney injuriesis so far limited and conflictingresultswere obtained. In the presentstudy,we addressed to evaluate thelong-termrenal effects of rHuEPO indiabeticnephropathy (DN) of rats inrelationto novel hypoxia theory andendogenousEPO secretion. WecomparedrHuEPO to a standarddrug,losartan (LSR), and the possibilityof add-on therapy was alsotested.Thirty-four male SpragueDawleyrats were randomly dividedintofive groups: control-naïve group,untreateddiabetic group, EPO- treated diabetic group (150 U/kg,S.C., TIW), LSR-treated diabeticgroup (5 mg/kg/day), and EPO-LSRtreateddiabetic group. Drug treatmentwas started one week afterstreptozotocin(STZ) injection andcontinuedfor twenty-eight weeks.STZ-treateddiabetic rats developedprogressivealbuminuria, renal dysfunction,and significant glomerularchange28 weeks after induction ofdiabetes.Chronic administration ofrHuEPOalone or in combination withLSRto the STZ-induced diabetic ratdidnot show beneficial effect on DNevolution,inspite of improving diabetic-renalhypoxia. The best beneficialeffect on DN evolution was obtainedby LSR sole therapy based onrenalfunction evaluation, albuminu- ria, and renal histopathology. Interestingly,administration of LSR eitheraloneor in combination with rHuEPOinSTZ-induced diabetic rats significantlyabolished increased plasmaendogenousEPO. In conclusion, thisstudyhas questioned the renoprotectiverole of low-dose rHuEPO inthesetting of DN and confirmed thatthislow-dose rHuEPO used had adverseeffects on blood pressure andincreasedhematocrit level.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Download

Share

COinS