Interaction study on garlic and atorvastatin with reference to nephrotoxicity in dyslipidaemic rats

A total of 56 male Sprague dawley rats of uniform weight and age were randomly divided into seven groups consisting of eight rats in each group. Groups 1, 2, and 3 served as plain control, dyslipidaemic control (DL), and atorvastatin control, respectively. Groups 4, 5, 6, and 7 received 1, 0.5, 0.25, and 0.75% fresh garlic w/w in feed, respectively in addition to the high-fat and high-cholesterol diet and administered with atorvastatin orally for 12 weeks at the rate of 10, 5, 7.5, and 2.5 mg/kg b.wt., respectively. Plasma creatinine was estimated at 4-week intervals, whereas histopathology, electron microscopy, and estimation of TBARS concentration in kidney were conducted at the end of experiment. The TBARS concentration in DL was significantly (P<0.05) increased when compared with groups 1, 3, 6, and 7. On histopathological examination, kidney sections of group 3 had mild degenerative changes in the tubules with fatty change in few tubules, while groups 4 and 5 exhibited mild-to-moderate degenerative and fatty changes in tubules with inter tubular hemorrhages. The electron microscopy of group 2 showed hypertrophy of Bowman's capsule, while that of group 4 showed secretary deposits in the cytoplasm. The interaction studies on kidney indicated that high dose of atorvastatin + garlic has negative safety profile when compared with groups having low dose of statin and high dose of garlic.