Effects of Simvastatin on Gentamicin-induced kidney injury in rats

Consumption of gentamicin causes damage to cochlear part of ear and reversible kidney toxicity. Various compounds such as simvastatin have been suggested to reduce the side effects of gentamicin. The present study was conducted to investigate the effect of simvastatin in decreasing kidney damage due to gentamicin consumption in male Wistar rats. For this purpose, the rats were administrated simvastatin (5, 10 and 20 mg/kg daily) through gavage for 30 days. At the same time, they received gentamicin (40 mg/kg) intraperitoneally. The serumic levels of uric acid, sodium, potassium, BUN (blood urea nitrogen), creatinine, and albumin were measured and statistically analyzed using one-way analysis of variance and Tukey post hoc test. Significance was defined as p>0.05. Significant increase of creatinine (p>0.01), urea (p>0.001), BUN (p>0.001), and uric acid (p>0.001) and significant decrease of albumin (p>0.01) and sodium (p>0.01) was observed in the gentamicin-induced renal damage group in comparison to the normal control group. Treatment with simvastatin (20 mg/kg) in the animals suffering from kidney damage caused significant decrease of creatinine (p>0.01), urea (p>0.01), BUN (p>0.001) and uric acid levels (p>0.001) and significant increase in albumin (p>0.05) and sodium levels (p>0.01). The results of the present research indicate that simvastatin could improve kidney damage due to consumption of gentamicin in rats.