Red propolis protects kidney against acute ischemic renal failure and this protection is associated with reduced oxidative stress and eNOS and heme-oxygenase up regulation.

(-)-α-Bisabolol has a nephroprotective effect in kidney I/R, with antioxidant effect. Moreover, this result seems to be associated to a direct protective effect on tubular epithelia.

BackgroundWe aimed to evaluate urinary MCP-1 and oxidative stress through urinary malondialdehyde (MDA) in leprosy and correlate them with traditional, but less sensitive markers of renal disease.MethodsThis is a cross-sectional study of 44 patients with diagnosis of leprosy and no previous treatment. Skin smear was assessed through a bacteriological index - from 0 to 6+. Glomerular filtration rate (GFR), protein excretion rate, microalbuminuria, urinary oxidative stress, malondialdehyde (MDA) and urinary MCP-1 were measured. Also, high- sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP) was measured in the blood. Fifteen healthy subjects composed a control group.ResultsAge and gender were similar between leprosy patients and control groups. No patient had a GFR < 60 mL/min/1.73 m2 or albumin excretion rate greater than 30 mg/g-Cr. Leprosy patients had higher urinary protein excretion (97.6 ± 69.2 vs. 6.5 ± 4.3 mg/g-Cr, p < 0.001), urinary MCP-1 (101.0 ± 79.8 vs. 34.5 ± 14.9 mg/g-Cr, p = 0.006) and urinary MDA levels (1.77 ± 1.31 vs. 1.27 ± 0.66 mmol/g-Cr, p = 0.0372) than healthy controls. There was a positive correlation between urinary MCP-1 and bacteriological index in skin smears (r = 0.322, p = 0.035), urinary protein excretion (r = 0.547, p < 0.001), albumin excretion rate (r = 0.414, p = 0.006) and urinary MDA (r = 0.453, p = 0.002). After adjusting for hs-CRP, urinary MCP-1 remained correlated with albumin excretion rate (rpartial = 0.483, p = 0.007) and MDA levels (rpartial = 0.555, p = 0.001).ConclusionLeprosy patients with no clinical kidney disease have increased urinary MCP-1 mainly in lepromatous polar form. Inflammatory (MCP-1) and oxidative stress markers suggest leprosy patients are at high risk of developing kidney disease.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/1471-2334-14-451) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

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Ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) -induced Acute kidney injury (AKI) is characterized by hypoxia and production of reactive oxygen species (ROS), which could be prevented with antioxidant agents. The essential oil of Lippia alba (EOLA) chemotype citral-limonene is rich in components with antioxidant activity. So, this study aims to evaluate the nephroprotective effect of the EOLA on in vivo and in vitro models of renal I/R. Male Wistar rats were submitted to right nephrectomy, followed by ischemia by clamping the renal artery in the left kidney and a reperfusion. Animals received EOLA (200 mg/kg) or vehicle three days prior to I/R surgery. Blood and urine samples were obtained to evaluate creatinine, urea, uric acid, and creatinine clearance. The left kidney was collected for histological evaluations and analysis of thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS) and reduced glutathione (GSH). HK-2 cells were used to evaluate the effect of EOLA on I/R in vitro, using the MTT assay. Moreover, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) was performed to evaluate cell morphological alterations. The I/R resulted in biochemical parameter alterations, with EOLA HIGHLIGHTS• Essential Oil of Lippia alba treatment reverted ischemia-induced biochemical alterations.• Essential Oil of Lippia alba treatment ameliorated renal morphological alterations.• Essential Oil of Lippia alba decreased oxidative stress in renal tissue.• Essential Oil of Lippia alba reversed the ischemic damage on tubular cells.• .• Insert a highlight no longer than 85 characters.• Insert a highlight no longer than 85 characters.• Insert a highlight no longer than 85 characters.

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Philodryas nattereri is distributed in arid and semiarid regions of South America and is most common in northeastern Brazil. The aims of the work were to investigate the effects of the venom from P. nattereri in cultured of MDCK and RAW cells and abdominal writhes in mice. Based on oxidative metabolism, it was possible to observe that the venom was capable of significantly reducing cell viability only at higher concentrations of venom at 50 and 100 μg/mL for MDCK cells, while in 200 μg/mL to RAW cells, with an IC 50 of 169.5 μg/mL. Regarding writhing in mice promoted by the poison and acetic acid, it held a greater number of writhes when compared to promoted by saline. The venom of P. nattereri has a cytotoxic effect in MDCK and RAW cells and abdominal writhes, which appears to be similar to those caused by acetic acid.