Effects of ulinastatin on oxidative stress and renal injury in rats with severe heatstroke

Objective　To study the effects of ulinastatin on oxidative stress factors and renal function in rats with severe heatstroke. Methods　Forty-two male SPF Wistar rats were randomly divided into normal control group (group C, n=6), heat stroke group (HS group, n=18) and ulinastatin treatment group (UTI group, n=18). Rats in the HS group and UT group were placed in an artificial climate chamber to induce HS, while rats of group C were kept at room temperature (23±0.2℃). UT rats were given by intraperitoneal injection of ulinastatin before model reproduction in a dose of 100 thousand units/kg, and it was repeated every 12h. The other in the rest two groups were injected with equal amount of normal saline. All the rats were sacrificed in batches at 0, 6 and 24h after successful modeling. Before death, blood samples were collected to determine serum creatinine and urea nitrogen with automatic biochemical analyzer. Meanwhile the concentrations of renal superoxide dismutase (SOD), glutathione peroxidase (GPx) and malondialdehyde (MDA) were determined with colorimetric method. Pathological changes in renal tissue of all animals were observed at 24h after model replication with light and electron microscopy. Results　Compared with rats in group C, the MDA levels at 0h after onset of heatstroke increased significantly (P 0.05). At the same time, compared with HS group, the elevated levels of serum Cr and BUN in the UTI group were lower at 6 and 24h after heatstroke onset (all P<0.05). The pathological damage of the kidney at 24h after heatstroke was significantly ameliorated in the UTI group. Conclusions　Oxidative stress is involved in the pathogenesis of the renal injury during heatstroke, UTI may protect rats with heatstroke from renal injury by inhibiting oxidative stress in the kidney. DOI: 10.11855/j.issn.0577-7402.2015.05.04