Influence Of Baicalin On The Heart And Kidney Injury Induced By Iron Overload

Iron is an essential trace element in organism. With the improving of living standards, the proportion of the meat in daily meal is increasing and the iron overload in our body happen more and more frequently. Iron overload was defined that a series of pathological changes in the body which induced by genetic factors or pathological conditions. In recent years, many studies have reported that the deleteriousness of iron overload caused organ damage through the generation of reactive oxygen species. Liver, heart and kidney are the main target organ to be injured in case of iron overload. Baicalin is an active antioxidant flavonoid, which have been researched in antioxidative and pharmacological effects for many years. In this thesis, the effect of baicalin on the iron-overload induced nephrotoxicity and cardiotoxic, have been studied in rats. The result indicated iron-overload reduces antioxidant status and enhance oxidative and nitrative damage. Supplementation of baicalin ameliorated iron-induced heart and kidney toxicity but is not completely protective. The main results are as follows:The male rats were prepared by peritoneal injection of iron-dextran five times in two weeks to induce chronic iron overload, and the another positive control group was supplemented with baicalin containing diet (1% w/w) at the same time. Compared with control group, Fe content of iron-overload rats was clearly increased in heart and kidney, with concomitant increasing protein tyrosine nitration and oxidation stress like lipid peroxidation and protein oxidation. In iron-overload group, the activity of glutathione peroxidase, catalase, thiol group content and the total antioxidation status almost dose-dependently declined in both heart and kidney, except cardiac superoxide dismutase activity increased. Supplementation of baicalin increased glutathione peroxidase activity in both two tissues as well as attenuated oxidation injury in kidney.