Histopathological study of the combination of metformin and garlic juice for the attenuation of gentamicin renal toxicity in rats

Introduction: tubular toxicity is one of the most important side effects of aminoglycoside antibiotics, especially gentamicin.objectives: we histopathologically studied the effect of garlic extract and metformin co-administration, in attenuation of genetamicin induced tubular toxicity in rats.materials and methods: in this study seventy rats were divided into seven equal groups and except group 1 (control) were injected 100 mg/kg/day gentamicin (gm) intraperitoneally (i.p.) for 10 days. other than gm, group iii received 20 mg/kg garlic (i.p.), group iv metformin (mf) (100 mg/kg, orally), group v a combination of mf with garlic juice (100 and 20 mg/kg/day, respectively) and group vi a combination of mf and garlic juice (50 and 10 mg/kg/day, respectively) for following 10 days. group vii received a combination of mf and garlic juice (100 and 20 mg/kg, respectively) along with gm. animals were sacrificed on the 20th day of the experiment and the kidneys were removed for histological examinations.results: gm induced nephrotoxicity and garlic or mf alone and a combination of both with high doses (not low doses) significantly abolished the kidney tubular injury induced by gm. in addition, co-administration of gm, mf and garlic (group 7) prevented the gm- induced tissue damage more than the groups in which mf and garlic were injected 10 days post gm administration.conclusion: garlic extract and metformin, alone or in a combination, might be safely used to ameliorate gm induced tubular toxicity.