PROTECTIVE EFFECT OF CAPTOPRIL AGAINST CISPLATIN-INDUCED NEPHROTOXICITY IN RATS

This study has been initiated to determine whether captopril, an angiotensin-converting enzyme (ace) inhibitor containing sulfhydryl (-sh) group can protect against cisplatin-induced nephrotoxicity in rats. a single dose of cisplatin (7.5mg/kg bwt) injected i.p. caused a significant increase in blood urea nitrogen (bun) and creatinine levels amounting to 402% and 573%, respectively with a marked elevation in lipid peroxides measured as malondialdehyde (mda) content (54%), accompanied by a significant decrease in reduced glutathione (gsh) content (27%) of kidney tissue as compared to control group. in addition, there were marked increases in kidney tissue content of nitric oxide (no) (43%) and plasma endothelin-1(et-1) (37%). on the other hand, administration of captopril (60mg/kg bwt, i.p.) 1 h before cisplatin protected the kidney as indicated by restoration of bun, creatinine, mda, gsh, no and et-1. these results indicate that captopril, an acei, has a protective effect against cisplatin-induced damage to kidney. this reflects the beneficial role of captopril in treatment of renovascular hypertention and congestive heart failure; an effect that may be related to its free radicals scavenging and antioxidant effects which are sulfhydryl dependent.