Background and purpose: Mercuric chloride (Merc) can cause kidney toxicity. Harmine (Harm), an herbal alkaloid has various pharmacological and medicinal effects mainly because of its antioxidant activity. In this study, therefore, Harm's protective mechanisms on Merc-induced nephrotoxicity in BALB/c male mice were investigated. Experimental approach: Forty-eight male mice were randomly divided into six groups (n = 8). Groups were received saline, Merc (0.5 mL/day of 0.5 ppm aqueous), Harm (5, 10, 15 mg/kg/day), Merc + Harm (5, 10, 15 mg/kg/day) for 14 consecutive days. Saline and Harm were administrated intraperitoneally and Merc dissolved in drinking water. Urea and creatinine serum levels, body weight, kidney weight, quantitative and qualitative histological alterations, apoptosis rate, total antioxidant capacity (TAC), superoxide dismutase (SOD), and nitric oxide (NO) levels were evaluated. Findings/Results: There was a significant reduction in total body and kidney weights, renal histological criteria, TAC, SOD levels in the Merc group compared to the control group ( P < 0.05), whereas these parameters in the Merc + Harm groups, were significantly increased compared to the Merc group ( P < 0.05). Urea and creatinine serum levels, levels of NO, and apoptosis were significantly higher in the Merc group than the control, while these parameters were decreased in the Merc + Harms groups in comparison with the Merc group ( P < 0.05). Conclusion and implications: Harm protected Merc-induced renal damage in mice. This protection was observed in both histological and biochemical respects. The beneficial effect of Harm was related to its antioxidant properties that diminish NO production and apoptosis induction in the kidney.

This study aimed to compare acacetin adverse effect besides a cisplatin low dose on male reproductive and urinary systems on mice. In this study, 36 male Balb/c mice were received Dimethyl sulfoxide, cisplatin (1 mg/kg) or acacetin (10, 25, 50 mg/ kg) for 3 days, while the sixth group, treated with acacetin (50 mg/kg) for 10 days.All treatments were done consequence daily and intraperitoneally. Histological and biochemical factors to male reproductive and urinary systems were assayed. Only in cisplatin exposed group, significant differences were seen with the others. So that, some reproductive criteria were significantly decreased; serum levels of folliclestimulating hormone, luteinizing hormone, testosterone, sperm parameters, the diameters of seminiferous tubules, Johnsen's score and from the urinary system; renal corpuscles' space, Mg 2+ concentration (p < .01). Moreover, significant increases were seen in serum levels of tumour necrosis factor-alpha, Blood urea nitrogen, creatinine, testis myeloperoxidase activity and tumour necrosis factor-alpha expression, kidney histological damage and renal corpuscle diameter (p < .01). Cisplatin exposure disrupts histological and functional characteristics of either male reproductive or urinary systems, suggesting by inflammation-promoting. Acacetin does not induce any harmful impact on these two systems and could be considered as a safe flavonoid by high dose and prolonged usage. K E Y W O R D S flavonoids, myeloperoxidase, toxicity, tumour necrosis factor-alpha 2 of 9 | SHOKRI et al.anti-inflammatory, anti-peroxidative, anti-aromatase and tissue protection are well known (Choi et al., 2014;Shim et al., 2007;Zhao, Dasmahapatra, Khan, & Khan, 2008).This study was conducted to investigate any AC hazardous effects compared to a low dose of cisplatin on male reproductive and urinary systems in male mice. Accordingly, we examined sperm characteristics, gonadal hormone serum levels, renal functional criteria, inflammatory markers, histological alterations in testis and kidney. | MATERIAL S AND ME THODS | Experimental designThirty-six male Balb/c mice (30 ± 2 g) were kept in the temperature of 22 ± 2°C under controlled environmental conditions, 12 hr light/ dark cycle with water and food ad libitum in a 1 week adaptation period. The ethical committee of our University approved the experiments based on the world medical association's (WMA) DeclarationEthic of Helsinki (protocol number: 95594). Then, the mice were divided randomly into six groups (n = 6) including control, cisplatin and AC with different doses. They were exposed daily for three consecutive days by intraperitoneal (I.P) injections of Dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO, 0.1%), cisplatin (EBEWE Pharma; 1 mg/kg) dissolved in saline or AC (Sigma, no: 00017; 10, 25, 50 mg/kg) untangled in 1% of DMSO respectively. A separate group was injected (I.P) to AC (50 mg/kg) once a day, but for 10 continuous days. 24 hr after the last injections, mice were anaesthetized deeply with ketamine HCl (100 mg/kg), xylazine (10 mg/kg). Then, sam...

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