Therapeutic effect of antihypertensive drug on diabetic nephropathy: Functional and structural kidney investigation

Due to the growth of diabetic mellitus (DM) and diabetic nephropathy as a significant complication for diabetic patients, study on effective treatment with fewer side effects has been fascinated. In this study for the first time carvedilol effects on both function and structure of kidney in diabetic nephropathy treatment were evaluated. Diabetes was induced by injection of streptozotocin (STZ) intravenously in rats and three groups including control, diabetic, and treatment with carvedilol were considered. Biochemical parameters such as, blood glucose level, BUN, creatinine, uric acid, Na⁺, K⁺ was determined. Results showed that glucose (516 to 291 mg/dl), BUN (42 to 21.67 mg/dl), creatinine (0.75 to 0.6 mg/dl), uric acid (4.45 to 1.36 mg/dl), and K⁺ (7.433 to 5.433 mEq/l) level reduced. Decrease in glucose, BUN, creatinine, uric acid, and K⁺ and increase in Na⁺ level (138 to 146.33 mEq/l) confirmed therapeutic effect of carvedilol. Furthermore, the histopathological study was done for each group. Histopathological results confirmed the data obtained by biochemical parameters. For further investigation, SPECT imaging with ^99mTc-DMSA, which is a gold standard in diabetic nephropathy detection, was done. SPECT imaging showed that accumulation of ^99mTc-DMSA was increased in treated group (5 to 25 kcpm) which means the improvement in renal structure in the treated group compare to the diabetic group (5 kcpm). Finally, obtained results confirmed our hypothesis that carvedilol had a therapeutic effect on diabetic nephropathy.