The Antioxidant, Anti-Apoptotic, and Proliferative Potency of Argan Oil against Betamethasone-Induced Oxidative Renal Damage in Rats

Abstract

The present study aimed to investigate the protective effect of argan oil (AO) against nephrotoxic effects following overdose and long-term administration of betamethasone (BM). The phytochemical compositions of AO were assessed using GC/MS. Forty eight male Wister albino rats were divided into six groups and treated for 3 successive weeks. The control group was orally administrated distilled water daily, the BM group received BM (1 mg/kg, IM, day after day), AO/0.5 and AO/1 groups received AO (0.5 mL/kg, 1 mL/kg, orally, daily, respectively), BM + AO/0.5 group and BM + AO/1 group. The results revealed that BM induced hematological changes, including reduction of red blood cells with leukocytosis, neutrophilia, monocytosis, lymphocytopenia, and thrombocytopenia. Moreover, BM caused a significant increase of serum urea and creatinine levels, and renal malondialdehyde and nitric oxide contents with significant decrease of reduced glutathione content. BM also caused vascular, degenerative, and inflammatory histopathological alterations in kidney, along with an increase in the Bax/Bcl-2 ratio, activation of caspase-3, and decrease of proliferating cell nuclear antigen expression. Conversely, the concomitant administration of AO (0.5, 1 mL/kg) with BM ameliorated the aforementioned hematological, biochemical, pathological, and histochemical BM adverse effects. In conclusion, AO has protective effects against BM-induced renal damage, possibly via its antioxidant, anti-apoptotic, and proliferative properties.

Protective effects of Lactobacillus reuteri SJ-47 strain exopolysaccharides on human skin fibroblasts damaged by UVA radiation

“…FOXO is phosphorylated and degraded by AKT (Wolfgang et al 2009 ), and the inhibition of AKT phosphorylation in the presence of apoptotic factors facilitates the translocation of dephosphorylated FOXO into the nucleus and triggers the expression of apoptosis-related genes (Bax, p16, p21, and p53, etc. ), which leads to cell growth cycle arrest and apoptosis (Orabi Sahar Hassan et al 2020 ; Zhixue et al 2019 ; Jesel et al 2019 ; Jose and Kurup 2017 ). Among them, the p21 gene can resist apoptosis, and at the same time it inhibits proliferation and promotes apoptosis.…”

Modulatory effects of the addition of argan and olive oils on oxidative and nitrosative stress induced in Tetrahymena pyriformis

“…Referred to VAO, unique composition and properties is characterized by its richness in minor compounds such as tocopherols, sterols (schottenol and spinasterol), phenols (ferulic, syringic and vanillic acid) and vitamin E, with potential ROS scavenger properties [65][66][67]. Moreover, there is a large number of studies providing evidence that the radical scavenging activity of VOO is strictly correlated with its polyphenol content [68][69][70][71].…”

Comparative effects of meloxicam and dexamethasone in chickens with experimental systemic inflammation: clinical outcome and cardiovascular parameters

“…Hematological, biochemical, pathological, and histochemical adverse effects of betamethasone and diclofenac were demonstrated in rats. It was shown that overdose and long-term administration of anti-inflammatory drugs could induce hematological changes and severe renal damage mediated by oxidative apoptotic proliferative mechanisms and also lead to decreased total antioxidant capacity (Orabi et al 2020;Hashem et al 2021). Anti-inflammatory drug meloxicam shows that preferential inhibition of cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) has been used as a safe NSAID in numerous avian species in clinical practice (Morrison et al 2018).…”