A Stereological Study (3-D) for the Estimation of the Number of Kidney Glomeruli in Nephrotoxic Condition Due to the Side Effect of the Antineoplastic Drug Cisplatin

Cisplatin is a drug widely used as an antineoplastic drug for treatment of malignant tumors. But because of its side effects on the different systems especially kidney (nephrotoxic), the use of this drug is very limited. Clinical as well as, laboratory animal studies have supported this observations. In this research study we have used stereological technique (3-D) for finding the changes, due to nephrotoxic effect of this drug, in the number of glomeruli in kidney (numerical density and total number).

For experimental, 30 rats were separated by random sampling in to 3 groups of 10 animals cache. The first group received acute dose (7.5 mg/kg) of the drug (cisplatin) in serum physiology (experimental group). The second group received equivalent placebo dose in serum physiology through peritoneum (control). The third group received chronic dose (1.25 mg/kg) for 5 days, in serum physiology. All the 30 animals, after 96 hours, were anesthetized, dissected and their right kidneys were removed and placed in fixative (10% formalin). Whole kidney specimens were processed for stereology by special method of sectioning for physical disector and glomeruli number were counted.

Number of glumeroli and numerical density was estimated for experimental groups (control, acute and chronic) was 31707, 30415 and 30802 as well 162, 119, and 140 respectively.

Stereological methods could be very useful for investigation of chemical drug effects in organs with good validity.