الفهرس 
AcknowledgmentOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
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Abstract
Although RAS antagonists have demonstrated a real renoprotective role in the setting of chronic renal injuries, disease progression towards ESRF occurs. So, researchers and clinicians keep dreaming with novel renoprotective agents aimed to preserve renal function and/or arrest CKD progression based on testing new theories in particular renal disease.
The present study was formulated to test the novel hypoxia theory in experimental diabetic nephropathy (DN) and whether improving renal hypoxia could be achieved by rHuEPO with subsequent effects on DN progression. The detailed objectives were to evaluate the potential prophylactic and/or therapeutic effect of rHuEPO, alone, and in combination with losartan “LSR” (AT1 receptor blocker) on the progression of renal injury in rat model of DN. Renal assessment was done on two levels of interventions; immediately after induction of diabetes (prophylactic intervention), and 20 weeks after induction of diabetes (therapeutic intervention). This study utilized control and STZ-induced diabetic rats that were followed for 28 weeks. Rats were classified into two major groups, as follows:
Group 1: (Control groups, n =26)
Rats in this group received single injection of 0.25 ml citrate buffer only (0.01 mol/L, pH 4.5) by IP injection, and served as control groups throughout the study. Rats in this group were classified into four subgroups:
CNT-naïve (n = 8): control group received no drug treatment for 28 weeks.
CNT-EPO (n = 6): control group treated with EPO 150 IU/kg, SC, three times weekly (Toba et al, 2009) for 28 weeks.
CNT-LSR (n = 6): control group treated with losartan 5mg/kg/day, PO, for 28 weeks, dose selected equals to 56 mg human dose according to (Paget & Barnes, 1964) and within losartan’s antihypertensive human dose ranging from 50-100 mg daily (Barreras & Gurk-Turner, 2003).