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Updated: Jan 6, 2026
Renal Ischaemia Reperfusion Injury: A Mouse Model of Injury and Regeneration
Published on: June 7, 2014
Effects of exercise and stevia on renal ischemia/reperfusion injury in rats
Fathy H Elsaid1, Ali A Khalil1, Eman M Ibrahim2
1Department of Medical Physiology, Faculty of Medicine, Al-Azhar University, Assiut, Egypt.
Background:
The present work was designed to study the effects of methanolic stevia extracts and aerobic exercise and combination of both on renal I/R injury in male rats.
Methods:
60 adult male Sprague-Dawley rats were subdivided into five equal groups as sham, control, exercise, stevia, and stevia plus exercise group. After 5 weeks of exercise and stevia, animals were exposed to 45 min of left renal ischemia and right nephrectomy followed by reperfusion. Serum creatinine, creatinine clearance, fractional Na excretion (FENa+), malondialdehyde (MDA), reduced glutathione (GSH) and catalase (CAT) levels in kidney tissues were measured. Also, renal histopathology and the expression of caspase-3 by immunohistochemical examination were done.
Results:
The results showed that stevia, exercise or combination of stevia and exercise caused a significant decrease in serum level of creatinine (p < 0.001) and FENa+ (p < 0.001) and an increase in creatinine clearance (p < 0.001). Moreover, this caused a significant decrease in (MDA; p < 0.046) and an increase in GSH (p < 0.01) and CAT (p < 0.01), as well as causing a significant decrease in caspase 3 expression compared to the control group.
Conclusions:
Pretreatment with either stevia or exercise of combination of both seem to have protective effects on renal I/R injury. However, the protective effect of exercise against renal I/R injury seems to be less than stevia. These effects might be due to attenuation of oxidative stress and apoptosis in kidney tissues.
