Introduction: Ciprofloxacin is an antibiotic administered to treat many bacterial infections but causes kidney damage as one of its side effects.
Objective: To investigate the protective role of olive oil against ciprofloxacin-induced renal cortical injury.
Materials and methods: Forty adult albino rats; with average weight of 150-200 gm were randomly divided into five groups. They received medications by orogastric tube for 14 days. Normal control untreated group (Group I). Olive oil group received virgin olive oil (5 ml/Kg body weight) (Group II). Ciprofloxacin group received 20 mg/kg body weight, dissolved in 8 ml of distilled water (Group III). Combined group received the same doses of both ciprofloxacin and olive oil (Group IV). Recovery group received same dose of ciprofloxacin 14 days followed by same dose of olive oil (Group V), rats were scarified after one month from the end of experimental period.
Results: The external surface of kidneys showed hemorrhagic spots and white necrotic patches in ciprofloxacin treated group (III). Ciprofloxacin caused mild glomerular atrophy and necrosis of some epithelial cells of proximal and distal tubules. Ultrastructural changes were mitochondrial abnormalities and dilated brush border of proximal tubule cells, necrotic distal tubule cells with increased lysosomal number and increased width of urinary space of glomerulus. Combined group (IV) showed a significant level of protection in the form of restoration of normal glomerular structure with mild dilatation of urinary space and mild tubular structure affection. Recovery group (V) showed a higher significant level of protection, the complete restoration was pointed to be as control one.
Conclusion: This study suggests that ciprofloxacin induces marked degenerative changes on the renal tubules with mild effect on the glomeruli, which are regenerated by olive oil and can be recovered.