Abstract
This study aimed to examine the therapeutic effect of milk thistle (MT) on the kidneys of diethylnitrosamine/ carbon tetrachloride (DEN/CCl4) administration in rats. Twenty male albino rats weighing 130-170 gm were taken. It comprised of four groups(n=5): a control, MT treated, DEN/CCL4 untreated and DEN/CCl4treated with MT. DEN was injected in a single dose (200 mg/kg, I.P.), then carbon tetrachloride (CCl4) were injected I.P. for 2 weeks with 1ml/kg body weight. MT (500 mg/kg body weight) treatments were started 2 weeks after DEN/CCL4 administration and continued for 8 weeks. Kidney was stained with H&E, PAS and Masson's Trichrome. For scoring of the renal lesions, H&E sec- tions were analyzed five morphologicalparameters including tubular necrosis, mononuclear cell infiltration, congested blood vessels, hyaline (tubular) cast and glomerular changes. Also, sections were immunostained with inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) and analyzed using the ImageJ. The applied dose of DEN/CCL4caused histopathological alterations in the renal cortex such as tubular necrosis, swelling of the tubular epithelium, hyper- plastic glomeruli and focal inflammatory cell infiltration. Moreover, there was a decrease in the PAS +ve material in the proximal convoluted tubules and an increase in collagen deposition in the interstitium and glomerular tufts. Treat- ment with MT after administration of DEN/CCL4 attenuates the histological changes. A significant increase in the immunostaining intensity of (iNOS) of DEN/CCL4 treated animals compared to the MT treated ones.The study con- cluded that MT post treatment prevented the histopathological changes caused byDEN/CCl4. Therefore, MT can be used as an effective therapeutic agent againstDEN/CCl4-induced nephrotoxicity.