The impact of pretreatment with simvastatin on kidney tissue of rats with acute sepsis

Abstract

It has been reported that changes in cytokine levels affect mitochondrial functions, levels of hypoxia-inducible factor alpha (HIF-1 alpha), and tissue damage during sepsis. We aimed to investigate the effects of simvastatin pretreatment on mitochondrial enzyme activities, and on levels of ghrelin, HIF-1 alpha, and thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS) in kidney tissue during sepsis. Rats were separated into four groups, namely, control, lipopolysaccharides (LPS) (20 mg/kg), simvastatin (20 mg/kg), and simvastatin + LPS. We measured the levels of mitochondrial enzyme activities and TBARS in the kidney using spectrophotometry. The histological structure of the kidney sections was examined after staining with hematoxylin and eosin. Tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-alpha), IL-10, HIF-1 alpha, and ghrelin immunoreactivity were examined using proper antibodies. In tissue, TNF-alpha (p 0.05). Ghrelin immunoreactivity was lower in the LPS group (p 0.05). We observed that pretreatment of simvastatin caused favorable changes on ghrelin and TBARS levels in rats with sepsis.