Impact of Blocking Renin Angiotensin Aldosterone Axis in Acute Kidney Injury

Acute Kidney injury (AKI) is a common health problem especially the dug induced AKI as a side or toxic effect during treatment of different medical disorders. Local Renin angiotensin aldosterone system (RAAS) has been described in addition to the systemic RAAS and it is activated by renal injury. The aim of the current study was to evaluate and compare the renoprotective effect of inhibiting RAAS by losartan versus captopril on drug induced AKI. 36 male albino rats constituted the animal model and have been divided into 6 groups (6 rats/group): control, AKI, AKI+losartan, AKI+captopril, losartan, captopril groups. Systolic blood pressure, glomerular filtration rate (GFR) have been measured. Serum samples were collected for measurement of urea, creatinine, cystatin-c , Monocyte Chemoattractant Protein-1 (MCP-1) , Intercellular Adhesion Molecule 1 (ICAM-1) and  Neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin (NGAL). Kidney tissues were removed for measurement of tissue Malondialdehyde (MDA) and renal expression of Megalin, and kidney injury molecule 1(KIM1). Both captopril and losartan attenuated drug induced AKI as revealed from the measured serum and tissue parameters. Captopril was superior to losartan on normalizing ICAM-1, megalin and KIM-1, however; losartan improved GFR more than captopril. Other measured parameters showed no significant difference in AKI groups treated with losartan and groups treated with captopril.