This study aims to investigate whether hepatic and renal valproic acid (VPA) toxicities varied according to the dosing time in the 24-h scale in mice. VPA was administered by i.p. route to different groups of animals at four different circadian stages (1, 7, 13, and 19 h after light onset (HALO)). Biochemical study and histopathological examinations on liver and kidney sections were performed. The results showed that the hepatic and renal toxicity induced by VPA was time related. Animals treated at 19 HALO showed vacuolar degenerative changes, congestions, and inflammatory areas on liver parenchyma. Lesions within proximal tubules were observed in the kidney in groups treated at 19 HALO. The largest increases in alanine aminotransferase, alkaline phosphatase and plasma creatinine activities were also observed at 19 HALO. The obtained data indicate that the optimal hepatic and renal tolerance is observed when VPA was injected in the middle of the light-rest span of mice.
IntroductionCircadian rhythms are an inherent property of living systems and constitute an essential part of their internal and external temporal order. In mammals, daily rhythms in behavior and physiology are regulated by the circadian timing system, which includes the suprachiasmatic nuclei considered as one of the master biological clocks (Reinberg 1992;Liu et al. 1997). Several physiological and biochemical processes in laboratory animals and humans have been found to vary rhythmically over a 24-h period (i.e., to exhibit a circadian or diurnal rhythm) (Lemmer 1996). Temporal differences in drug action and toxicity have been recognized for over 50 years in humans and in laboratory animals. Many drugs vary in potency and/or toxicity associated with the rhythmicity of biochemical, physiological, and behavioral processes (Smolensky & D'alonzo 1993). Identification of rhythms in animal models leads to provide an optimal dosing time and suggests guidelines to a potential chronotherapy; indeed, the dosing of a medication at the proper biological time with reference to circadian rhythms can result in the modulation of its efficiency or its toxicity.