Changes in renal hemodynamics in streptozotocin-induced diabetic rats with L-ascorbic acid supplementation

The present study was designed to investigate whether L-ascorbic acid (AA) supplementation could prevent changes in renal hemodynamics in diabetic rats or not. The experiments were carried out in 48 male Sprague-Dawley rats. Diabetes mellitus was induced in rats by intravenous injection with streptozotocin (STZ) (55 mg/kg.bw), while the control rats were received citrate buffer alone. The renal hemodynamics was examined after the supplementation of AA (1 mg/l) for 8 and 16 weeks. The results demonstrated that AA could retard the increase (p<0.05) in renal vascular resistance (RVR) significantly compared with diabetic rats (STZ). Besides, at week 16, the effective renal plasma flow (ERPF) and the glomerular filtration rate (GFR) of STZ-AA were significantly higher than those of STZ (p<0.05). In conclusion, supplementation of AA was able to ameliorate the renal dysfunction in STZ-induced diabetic rats by decrease in RVR concomitant with an increase in both ERPF and GFR.