The effect of caffeic acid phenyethyl ester (CAPE) administration and gene expression of kidney vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) to in vivo acute renal nephrotoxicity case

In this thesis, 32 Wistar female rats were used to investigate vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF-A) gene expression and the protective role of caffeic acid phenethyl ester (CAPE) against gentamicin induced experimental renal nephrotoxicity model of rat kidney tissue. Animals in each group of eight rats were divided into 4 groups including; Control group (N; 10% dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) intraperitoneally given), Gentamicin group (G; 8 days via i.p. route, 100 mg/kg/day body weight gentamicin was intraperitoneally given), CAPE (C; 30 mg/kg/day body weight CAPE was given for 10 days), CAPE + gentamicin group (C + G; 30 mg/kg/day body weight CAPE and 100 mg/kg/day body weight gentamicin intaperitonal were applied together). At the end of the experiment, histopathology, VEGF-A gene expression, as well as serum BUN and creatinine levels were analyzed from the kidney tissue of groups. Gentamicin administration decreased the kidney VEGF-A gene expression compared to control group (p <0.05), whereas CAPE application did not alter VEGF-A gene expression (p > 0,05). Histopathologically, gentamicin application caused serious damage in the kidney tissue compared with the control group and the CAPE application was found to improve the damage partially. Gentamicin administiration significantly increased serum creatinine and BUN values compared with controls (p <0.05), but CAPE application did not exert any significant effect on raised serum and BUN levels (p> 0.05). As a result, gentamicin application significantly reduces kidney VEGF-A gene expression and altered VEGF-A gene expression could play an important role in gentamicin-induced renal injury. It is concluded that CAPE administration did not have any significant effect in preventing gentamicin-induced toxicity.