Abstract
Introduction: Nephrotoxicity is one of the adverse effects of cyclophosphamide (CP).
Objectives: The aim of this study is to comparatively investigate the protective effects of melatonin
(MT), alpha-lipoic acid (ALA) and N-acetylcysteine (NAC) on CP-induced nephrotoxicity in
albino rats.
Materials and Methods: Sixty adult albino rats used for this study were divided into four groups
(A-D). Rats in group A were treated with water intraperitoneally (ip) while rats in group B (B1-B4)
were treated with NAC (10 mg/kg), ALA (10 mg/kg), MT (10 mg/kg) and MT+ALA ip respectively
for 5 days. Rats in group C were treated with CP (150 mg/kg) ip on day 5. Rats in group D (D1-
D4) were pretreated with NAC, MT, ALA and MT+ALA ip for 5 days before treatment with CP
on day 5. Rats were sacrificed on the 6th day. Serum was extracted from blood and evaluated for
renal function parameters. Kidneys were removed and used for light microscopic and biochemical
studies.
Results: CP-treated rats showed significant (P<0.001) increases in serum creatinine, urea, uric
acid, potassium, sodium, chloride bicarbonate and kidney malondialdehyde (MDA) levels while
kidney superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT), glutathione (GSH) and glutathione peroxidase
(GPX) levels were significantly (P<0.001) decreased when compared to control. Nephrotic changes
characterized by tubular necrosis and infiltrations by inflammatory cells were observed in CPtreated rats. However, effects observed in CP-treated rats were significantly abrogated in ALA
(P<0.05), MT (P<0.05), NAC (P<0.01) and MT+ALA (P<0.001) pretreated rats when compared
to CP-treated rats.
Conclusion: The finding in this study showed that the nephroprotective effects of NA, MT, ALA,
and MT+ALA can be ranked as MT+ALA> NAC>MT>ALA