Exogenous follistatin administration ameliorates cisplatin-induced acute kidney injury through anti-inflammation and anti-apoptosis effects

OBJECTIVES: This study was aimed to explore the effects of follistatin on cisplatin-induced renal dysfunction, histopathological changes, apoptosis, inflammation and oxidative damage in rats. BACKGROUND: Follistatin plays an important role in the developmental and regeneration processes of kidney by blocking the actions of activin, which is a member of transforming growth factor-? superfamily. METHODS: Twenty seven rats were separated into 4 equal groups: Control, Cp (cisplatin, 6 mg/kg, intrapertoneally (ip)), F1 (cisplatin + 1 pg/day follistatin ip for 4 consecutive days) and F4 (cisplatin + 4 pg/day follistatin ip single dose) groups. Renal health was monitored by blood urea nitrogen, serum creatinine and histological analysis. Apoptosis, inflammation and oxidative stress was investigated in kidney tissue. Activin A levels in serum and kidney were evaluated as well. RESULTS: Follistatin administration showed a considerable nephroprotective effect against cisplatin-induced nephrotoxicity by preventing renal functional and structural abnormalities, apoptosis and inflammation. The activin A levels in both serum and kidney were also suppressed by follistatin administration. CONCLUSION: Exogenous follistatin ameliorates acute kidney injury, by blocking activin A. The renoprotective effect of follistatin against cisplatin-induced nephrotoxicity appears to be associated with its anti-inflammatory, antiapoptotic and direct nephroprotective actions (Tab. 1, Fig. 7, Ref. 23). Text in PDF www.elis.sk. © 2020, Bratislava Medical Journal. All rights reserved.2017-TDU-TIPF-00321Department of Physiology, Faculty of Medicine, Afyonkarahisar University of Health Sciences, Afyon,Turkey, 2Department of Physiology,Faculty of Medicine, Izmir Katip Celebi University, Izmir, Turkey, 3Department of Histology and Embryology, Cord Blood, Cell and Tissue Research and Application Centre, Faculty of Medicine, Ege University, Izmir, Turkey, 4Department of Biochemistry, Izmir Katip Celebi University Faculty of Medicine, Izmir, Turkey, 5Department of Histology and Embryology, Faculty of Medicine, Mugla Sitki Kocman University, Mugla, Turkey, and 6Department of Biophysics, Institute of Health Sciences, Aydin Adnan Menderes University, Aydin, Turkey Address for correspondence: E. Koken, MD, Department of Physiology, Faculty of Medicine, Afyonkarahisar University of Health Sciences, 03211, Afyon, Turkey. Phone: +90.555.6274834 Acknowledgement: Authors declared that chemical agents and consumables used in this study were supplied from the project funded by Izmir Katip Celebi University, Scientific Research Foundation with project number 2017-TDU-TIPF-0032