Oxaliplatin Treatment for 3-Weeks Does not Affect Mice Kidney Structure: A Stereological Study

Oxaliplatin (OX) is the third-generation platinum anticancer drug used to treat various types of cancers. Although oxaliplatin has a renal metabolism, the evaluation of its nephrotoxicity is limited.

This study describes the morphometry of mouse kidneys using stereology following OX treatment.

Twenty Balb/C healthy male adult mice were divided into two groups. The mice from group 1 re-ceived 3 mg/kg oxaliplatin three times a week for 21 days, and in group 2 the mice were injected with saline. The left kidneys were used to measure the kidney volume, the volume fraction of cortex and medulla, glomerular vol-ume, glomerular mean volume, glomerular number, epithelial volume, and length of the proximal (PCT) and distal (DCT) convoluted tubules.

No significant differences in total kidney volume, the volume of cortex, and medulla were observed between control and experimental animals (P≥0.05). No differences were observed in either epithelial volume of PCT and DCT or total length of PCT and DCT between the control and experimental group (P≥0.05). The glomer-ular volume fraction, total glomerular volume, mean glomerular volume, and glomerular number did not differ between control and the treated animals (P≥0.05).

The results did not demonstrate any deleterious effect of OX in the mentioned dose on kidney structure in mice. These findings may help infer contradictory outcomes of different studies in this field and promote future investigations.