Background: Renal replacement therapy, either by transplantation or dialysis, is not accessible in many parts of the
world because of lack of financial and clinical resources. This study was performed to investigate the nephroprotective
efficiency of gum arabic (GA) and lemongrass (LG) on adenine-induced chronic kidney disease.
Materials and methods: Four animal groups (each of 10 rats) received normal saline, intraperitoneal injection of
adenine (300 mg/kg) twice a week, and adenine plus oral GA (5.4 g/kg) or oral LG (360 mg/kg) daily for 4 weeks.
Results: Compared to control group, adenine-injected rats had significantly higher levels of serum urea, creatinine, and
uric acid. Moreover, biochemical analysis of kidney homogenate showed that adenine injection was associated with
significantly higher levels of malondialdehyde and lower levels of reduced glutathione and antioxidant enzyme activities
in comparison with normal control. Additionally, the adenine group exhibited a significant upregulation in tumor
necrosis factor-α and downregulation in interleukin-10 gene expression. Histopathological and immunohistochemical
examinations of renal tissue from the adenine group showed degeneration to renal glomeruli and renal tubules with
increased DNA double-strand breaks. On the other hand, treatment with GA or LG ameliorated all the previous
parameters to a large extent.
Conclusion: From this study, we concluded that oral administration of GA or LG could conceivably alleviate adverse
effects of CKD which might be ascribed to their antioxidant and free radical-scavenging properties.