Adriamycin (ADR) is an anthracy-clic antibiotic (Di Marco et af., 1969). It is considered now to be a very effec­tive and useful chemotherapeutic agent in the treatment of many human solid tumors and malignant heamato-logical processes {Carter et al., 1972). However, its extensive use al doses adequate for effective antitumor thera­py is restricted by the appearance of a severe cardiotoxicity (Adamson, 1974; Bristow et al., 1978; and Nagineni, 1985). Little is known about the effect of ADR on the kidney function and its relation to any pathological changes. Our study aims to reveal this relation after 4 and 8 weeks of ADR treatment.
Materials and methods
Animals: Experiments were carried out on white male rats weighing be- tween 200-300 grams. They were al­lowed acess to food and water ad. lib­itum. Five rats were injected i.v. with normal saline twice/week (served as control), and twinty rats arranged in two groups underwent treatment with adriamycin (1 mg/kg b.w. twice/week i.v.) for four weeks and eight weeks respectively. Urine samples were col­lected over 24 hours period from con­trol and adriamycin treated groups by using metabolic cages. Then the ani­mals were sacrified for sampling anal­ysis.
Biochemical and hlstochemical investigations:
Serum and urinary creatinine were determined by the method of Whiting et al., 1982. Creatinine clearance was calculated applying the following for­mula : Clearance = (P x V / u) m/min.