In the present work we assessed the effect of treatment of rats with
gum Arabic on
acute renal failure induced by
gentamicin (GM) nephrotoxicity. Rats were treated with the vehicle (2 mL/kg of distilled water and 5% w/v
cellulose, 10 days),
gum Arabic (2 mL/kg of
a 10% w/v aqueous
suspension of
gum Arabic powder, orally for 10 days), or
gum Arabic concomitantly with GM (80mg/kg/day intramuscularly, during the last six days of the treatment period). Nephrotoxicity was assessed by measuring the concentrations of
creatinine and
urea in the plasma and
reduced glutathione (GSH) in the kidney cortex, and by light microscopic examination of kidney sections. The results indicated that concomitant treatment with
gum Arabic and GM significantly increased
creatinine and
urea by about 183 and 239%, respectively (compared to 432 and 346%, respectively, in rats treated with
cellulose and GM), and decreased that of cortical GSH by 21% (compared to 27% in the
cellulose plus GM group) The GM-induced proximal tubular
necrosis appeared to be slightly less severe in rats given GM together with
gum Arabic than in those given GM and
cellulose. It could be inferred that
gum Arabic treatment has induced a modest amelioration of some of the histological and biochemical indices of GM nephrotoxicity. Further work is warranted on the effect of the treatments on renal functional aspects in models of
chronic renal failure, and on the mechanism(s) involved.