Investigation of the effect of crocin pretreatment on renal injury induced by infrarenal aortic occlusion.

OBJECTIVE: Ischemia and reperfusion (IR) injury is an important complication of abdominal aortic surgery, and it mainly affects the lower extremities and remote organs. In the present study, we aimed to investigate the possible protective effect of crocin in IR-mediated kidney damage.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: A total of 24 adult male Wistar-Albino rats were equally and randomly separated into three groups as follows: sham laparotomy, IR, and IR + crocin. Infrarenal aortic occlusion and reperfusion was applied for 1 and 2 h, respectively. Tissue samples were removed and collected. Biochemical and histopathologic analyses were performed.

RESULTS: Urea, blood urea nitrogen, creatinine, renal tissue tumor necrosis factor α, interleukin (IL)-6, IL-18, interferon gamma, IL-1β, total oxidant status, and oxidative stress index levels were significantly higher in IR group, when compared with other groups. These improvements were also demonstrated with some parameters including total score of histopathologic damage, Tunel, Bax, and Caspase-3 expression levels, and these parameters were prominently higher in the IR group, when compared with the other groups. Nevertheless, Bcl2 expression degree was prominently lower in the IR group than those in the other two groups.

CONCLUSIONS: Data established from the present study suggest that crocin can preclude renal damage in infrarenal aortic occlusion models.