Leptin and curcumin affect renal ischemia-reperfusion injury via modulation of P65 and Bax genes expression

Abstract

Ischemia and reperfusion are natural steps during kidney transplantation, and ischemia-reperfusion injury is a critical condition in which physicians must preserve organ function and control cell damage. As leptin is thought to play an important role in the regulation of the immune system and inflammation and curcumin is a potent anti-fibrotic agent, both agents are promising to have therapeutic impact on renal damage. The present study was designed to evaluate the effects of leptin and curcumin on renal ischemia-reperfusion injury. Forty adult male albino rats were divided into four groups: control; ischemia-reperfusion (I/R), leptin-treated (leptin was injected intraperitoneally at a dose 100 μg/kg for 3 days prior to ischemia) and curcumin-treated (curcumin was given orally at a dose of 50 mg/kg/day for 5 days before ischemia). All rats were sacrificed 24 hours after reperfusion. Serum urea and creatinine, renal malondialdehyde and total antioxidant capacity were measured. Renal TNF-α was assayed by ELISA and P65 and Bax mRNA expression were determined using RT-PCR. Our results demonstrated a significant increase in P65 and Bax mRNA expression after renal ischemia-reperfusion injury compared to control group. Both leptin and curcumin prevented oxidative damage of the renal tissues as they lowered MDA and nitric oxide levels, increased antioxidant capacity and decreased TNF-α level. It was shown that protective leptin and curcumin effect against kidney IR-induced oxidative injury was associated with a down-regulation of P65 and Bax expression. These results show that ischemia-reperfusion leads to renal damage and also they reveal that both leptin and curcumin have protective implications which may be promising agents for avoiding various adverse effects.

Keywords

• ischemia-reperfusion
• kidney
• bax
• p65
• curcumin
• leptin