Partial protection of verapamil against gentamicin nephrotoxicity in rats

Abstract

A number of male rats (40) were used to test the protective efficacy of verapamil a calcium channel blocker (CCB) against gentamicin nephrotoxicity. They were divided into four groups: group-1 control, giving only water, group- 2, they were administered gentamicin IP 80 mg/Kg, group-3, administered verapamil orally 10 mg/Kg and group-4 administered gentamicin and verapamil at the same time. The period of study was 10 days. Nephrotoxicity was induced by using gentamicin for 7 days; this was evidenced by marked elevation in blood urea nitrogen (BUN) andplasma creatinine (Pcr) when compared with control. BUN increased from 20±1.4 to 205±7 and Pcr from 0.75±0.08 to 4.2±0.3 mg/100 ml). Coadministration of verapamil with gentamicin decreased the rise in BUN and Pcr, their values reached to 90±13 and 1.5±0.9 mg/100 ml respectively. Our data suggest that supplementation of verapamil decreased the severity of acute renal failure (ARF) in rats, this supports previous studies in which CCBs offer renoprotection in ARF, the exact mechanism of this protection need further study.

Keywords

• Acute renal failure, Plasma creatinine, blood urea nitrogen, calcium channel blockers, Endothelium derived relaxing factor