Blueberry Extract (Vaccinium corymbosum) Attenuates Tnf-α Expression and Renal Inflammatory Cell Counts in Rats Models of Acute Kidney Injury

Abstract

Acute kidney injury is a loss of kidney function characterized by decreased kidney function, decreased glomerular filtration, and increased levels of urea and creatinine. Blueberry extract has a high anthocyanin content which can act as an antioxidant and anti-inflammatory, making it a potential candidate for natural therapy for acute kidney injury. The purpose of this research was to determine the role of blueberry extract on TNF-α expression and the number of inflammatory cells in acute kidney injury. Rats (Rattus norvegicus) male Wistar stock aged 6-8 weeks, body weight between 200-250 grams, 20 rats were divided into 5 groups consisting of a negative control group (NC), namely rats without treatment, a positive control group (PC) namely rats induced acute kidney injury by glycerol 50%, and therapy groups T1, T2, T3 induced acute kidney injury and were given blueberry extract at doses of 500 mg/kg, 1000 mg/kg, and 1500 mg/kg respectively. The Blueberry extract was given orally 1 x 24 hours for 14 days. At the end of the research, the rats were euthanized, and the rats' kidneys were taken for the measurement of TNF-α expression using immunohistochemical staining and the number of inflammatory cells using hematoxylin-eosin staining. Analysis of quantitative data on TNF-α expression and the inflammatory cells count using the One Way ANOVA test with a significance value of P<0.05. The results showed that the extract of Blueberry could reduce TNF-α expression (P<0.05) and the number of inflammatory cells (P<0.05) in the kidney with the best dose of 1500 mg/kg. The conclusion is the blueberry extract has a therapeutic effect on acute kidney injury based on TNF-α expression and the number of inflammatory cells.

Inflammatory mediator responses of Vaccinium corymbosum extracts on the streptokinase induced acute glomerulonephritis in rats

“…The total of inflammatory cells in the blueberry therapy group gradually declined following the increased dose of the blueberry extract but this difference is not statistically significant (p>0.05). Blueberries are rich in anthocyanidins and anthocyanins content and the anti-inflammatory properties of blueberries might be due to the presence of these chemicals (Pervin et al 2016;Khoo et al 2017;Fauzi et al 2021). The result obtained in this study suggests that blueberry extract has potential anti-inflammatory activities against AGN, and abolishes inflammatory cell infiltration.…”