Search

Renal ischemia-reperfusion is the cause of acute renal insufficiency, which exerts a high mortality index. Nowadays, the treatments used for the recovery of the kidney submitted to ischemia-reperfusion have a limited success. For this reason, it is necessary to look for effective therapeutic strategies that help to prevent renal damage. The most prominent histopathological feature of renal ischemia-reperfusion is the lesion of the cortical proximal tubules. The objective of this work was to evaluate the effect of ozone oxidative preconditioning on the morphology of renal cortex proximal tubules against ischemia-reperfusion damage. Renal cortex pieces from 16 rats were studied. Rats were divided into four groups: control, ischemia-reperfusion damaged (60 min of ischemia followed by 180 min of reperfusion), and two groups of rats preconditioned with ozone (0.5 and 1.1 mg/kg body weight respectively) and submitted to ischemia-reperfusion. Samples were processed following conventional Spurr resin embedding. Semithin sections were prepared and analyzed qualitative and quantitatively by Light Microscopy. Morphological markers of ischemia-reperfusion-induced renal damage on renal proximal tubules were identified as: loss of the brush border, tubular swelling, increase of tubular areas and perimeters, tubular necrosis and increase of epithelial cell nuclei in tubular lumen, related to the formation of casts. Ozone oxidative preconditioning led to the recovery of proximal tubules morphology. Since ozone therapy protects epithelial cells of renal proximal tubules, it could be considered as an efficient tool against renal ischemia-reperfusion damage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]