[doi: 10.5505/2017ichc.PP-27]

Investigation of Possible Protective Effects of Alpha Lipoic Acid on Ischemia-Reperfusion Induced Kidney Tissue

Burcu Gültekin1, Seçkin Tuncer2, Seda Çetinkaya3, Aydan Özgörgülü1, Nizamettin Dalkılıç2
1Department of Histology and Embryology, Necmettin Erbakan University, Konya, Turkey
2Department of Biophysics, Necmettin Erbakan University, Konya, Turkey
3Department of Histology and Embryology, Karatay University, Konya, Turkey

AIM: In this study, we investigated the possible positive effects of alpha lipoic acid on renal damage caused by infrarenal ischemia reperfusion (I/R) in rats by immunohistochemical methods.
METHODS: In this study male Sprague Dawley rats weighing 200- 250 g. (2,5-3 month) were used. The rats were randomly divided into four groups each having 10 animals. Under light anesthesia in IR group blood delivery is occluded from the infrarenal area of the abdominal aorta by using a vascular clamp, after 30 minutes the clamp was removed and blood delivery was allowed for 2 hours. In SHAM group, only clamp was not placed. I/R + ALA group alpha lipoic acid was injected (100mg/kg, i.p) for 3 days before the operation, then on the operation day the same procedure with IR group was performed. Animals in ALA group were received alpha lipoic acid (100mg/kg, i.p) every day for 3 days. The day after the last injection the animals were sacrificed and the tissues were collected. After routine histological follow-up techniques tissues were cut into 5 μm-thick sections. These sections were stained with hematoxylin-eosin for histological assessment. Mouse monoclonal Bcl-2 (1:100 dilution) antibody and Bax (1:100 dilution) antibody is used for immune evaluation of kidney tissue sections with streptavidin-biotin-peroxidase method.
RESULTS: Histopathological evaluation revealed that the renal tissues of the SHAM group had normal structure with no pathological changes. In the IR group, tubular lümen dilation, vacuolization, degeneration, and mononuclear cell infiltration were higher than those of the SHAM group. However no differences were observed between the SHAM and ALA group, in IR+ALA group tubular degeneration is continued but decrease in mononuclear cell infiltration and expansion of Bowmann’s capsule cavity is determined.
Immunostaining evaluation showed that, the Bcl-2 expression was increased in renal tubules of SHAM and ALA group compared with IR and IR+ALA group. The Bax expression were found to be increased in SHAM and ALA as compared with IR and IR+ALA group.
CONCLUSION: Histopathological and immunohistochemical findings revealed that abdominal ischemia-reperfusion caused significant damage, but alpha lipoic has protective effects against ischemia-reperfusion related renal tissue injury.