Antioxidant potential of hesperidin and ellagic acid on renal toxicity induced by mercuric chloride in rats

The health effects of mercury are highly dependent on the different chemical forms of mercury. Inorganic mercury has a non-uniform distribution after absorption being accumulated mainly in kidney tissue causing acute renal failure. The purpose of this work was to study the influence of hesperidin and ellagic acid followed by mercuric chloride induced kidney damage. At sub-lethal dose of mercuric chloride (1.23 mg/kg B.W) was administrated in rats for 7 days. The results revealed that treatment of mercuric chloride caused marked enhanced level of lipid peroxidation (LPO) content and significantly decreased in the level of reduced glutathione (GSH), glutathione peroxidase (GPx), catalase (CAT) and superoxide dismutase (SOD) activities in the kidney tissue. Hesperidin is a natural flavonoid and a strong antioxidant helps to prevent oxidative damage. Ellagic acid has a chemo protective effect in cellular models by reducing oxidative stress. The treatment of hesperidin and ellagic acid (5 mg/kg B. W) in the kidney tissue shows a significantly decreasing in the level of oxidant content and simultaneously an enhanced level of antioxidant properties by the way of recovery in kidney tissues. Antioxidant and non-antioxidant enzymes (LPO, GSH, GPx, SOD, CAT) activities were also an enhanced to near normal level when compared to mercury treated group. These observations of the present experimental study demonstrated a preliminary protective effect of hesperidin and ellagic acid against mercuric chloride intoxicated rat kidney tissue.