Pumpkin and Vitamin E as Potent Modulators of Apoptosis in Gentamicin-induced Rat Nephrotoxicity

Background and Objective: Translocation of cytochrome c into the cytosol is a main mechanism of gentamicin induced renal apoptosis even through its direct or indirect effects on mitochondrial membrane.The current study aimed to investigate the possible protective effect of pumpkin in relation to vitamin E as a common natural antioxidant on a nephrotoxic model induced by gentamicin.Materials and Methods: About 40 male rats were divided into four groups, of 10 each: Control group, G-treated group (120 mg kgG 1 /day i.p., for 15 days), G+Vit.E-treated group (200 mg kgG 1 orally for 45 days) and G+PK-treated group (20% of the diet for 45 days).Gentamicin injection was started on the 30th day for both last groups.All data were statistically evaluated by one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) using SPSS software, version 15 (Chicago, USA) followed by the Tukeyʼs post hoc test for comparisons.Results: This study revealed that pumpkin significantly decreased BAX/BCL-2 ratio and attenuated gentamicin induced apoptosis.It also exhibited powerful antioxidant effects as indicated by a significant decrement in MDA level and a significant increment in total antioxidant capacity (TAC) level and catalase (CAT) activity.Furthermore, pumpkin successfully improved the kidney function of rats which was manifested by amelioration of deteriorated serum creatinine, urea, sodium and potassium levels and this effect is thought to be as a result of the anti-apoptotic and anti-oxidant properties of pumpkin.Conclusion: The performance of pumpkin as anti-apoptotic and antioxidant was to some extent similar to that of vitamin E and it successfully protected against the toxic direct and indirect effects of gentamicin on kidney through down regulation of BAX and up regulation of BCL-2 gene expression and further inhibition of mitochondrial cytochrome c translocation into cytosol.