Protective and Ameliorative Effects of Benidipine Hydrochloride Against Renal Damage in the Stroke-prone Spontaneously Hypertensive Rat (SHR-SP)

The potential of benidipine hydrochloride (BH), a 1,4-dihydropyridine calcium antagonist and a possible vasodilator, to protect against renal damage in the stroke-prone spontaneously hypertensive rat (SHR-SP) was examined using fifty-five males (10 weeks old). The animals were allotted into experiments 1 and 2, in each case subdivided into three groups (control and BH at doses of 3 and 10 mg/kg). Administration of BH was initiated before identification of clinical stroke in Experiment 1 and after its onset in Experiment 2. Measurement of body weight (BW) and systolic blood pressure (SBP) indicated that treatment of BH was associated with increased BW gain and reduced blood pressure in both experiments. Histopathological assessment revealed significant and dose-dependent decrease in the degree of fibrinoid necrosis in renal blood vessels, sclerosis, hyalinization, edematous thickening and Bowman's space dilatation in glomeruli, as well as protein casts, dilated or regenerative tubules, and interstitial inflammatory infiltration with fibrosis in tubulointerstitium in the BH treated groups as compared with the control group. These results indicated that BH exerts vasodilative effects on the kidney with improvement of regional blood flow, then preventing and ameliorating renal damage.