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Astaxanthin attenuates contrast-induced acute kidney injury in rats via ROS/NLRP3 inflammasome

  • Nephrology - Original Paper
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Abstract

Objective

To explore the protective effect and mechanism of astaxanthin on the kidney of rats with contrast-induced acute kidney injury.

Methods

Forty SD rats were randomly divided into five groups: Control group (CON); Astaxanthin control group (AST); Contrast media group (CM); Astaxanthin pre-treatment group (AST + CM); N-acetylcysteine pre-treatment group (NAC + CM), each group with eight rats. The rats were killed 72 h after the modeling, the blood supernatant and kidneys were collected, and then the serum creatinine and blood urea nitrogen levels were measured; HE staining was used to observe the pathological changes in kidney tissue; TUNEL was used to detect apoptosis level in renal tubular epithelial cells; frozen section was used to observe the expression of ROS in renal tissue by reactive oxygen staining; the expression of NLRP3, ASC, caspase-1, IL-1β, IL-18 were detected by immunohistochemistry and western blot.

Results

The CI-AKI rat model was induced by iohexol. Then the elevated level of ROS activated the inflammatory response mediated by NLRP3 inflammasome (NLRP3, ASC, caspase-1). Subsequently, the increase in renal tubular epithelial cell apoptosis caused the destruction of the pathological structure of the kidney and finally led to renal impairment. While after the pretreatment of astaxanthin, the level of ROS was decreased. The activation level of NLRP3 inflammasome and its mediated inflammatory response were alleviated significantly. Eventually, the level of renal tubular epithelial cell apoptosis and renal damage were significantly mitigated.

Conclusion

Astaxanthin can protect the kidney in CI-AKI by inhibiting the activation of NLRP3 inflammasome-IL-1β/IL-18 through inhibition of the production of ROS.

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Acknowledgements

This research was supported by the affiliated hospital of Xuzhou Medical University.

Funding

Fund project: Six Talent Peaks Projects in Jiangsu province of China (2014-YY007).

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Author notes

  1. Liang Song and Shun Yao contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases, Xuzhou Medical University, Xuzhou, 221000, China

    Liang Song, Shun Yao & Wenhua Li

  2. Department of Cardiology, The Affiliated Hospital of Xuzhou Medical University, No.99 Huaihai West Road, Xuzhou, 221002, Jiangsu, China

    Di Zheng, Yongli Xuan & Wenhua Li

Authors
  1. Liang Song
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  2. Shun Yao
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  3. Di Zheng
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  4. Yongli Xuan
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  5. Wenhua Li
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Contributions

LS, SY and WHL contributed to the conception of the work, conducting the study, revising the draft, approval of the final version of the manuscript, and agreed on all aspects of the work. LS, SY, DW, YLX and WHL contributed to the conception of the work, and drafting and revising the draft. All authors read and approved the final version of the manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Wenhua Li.

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The authors declare that they have no competing interest.

Ethical approval

The experiments were performed in accordance with the Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals published in P. R. China and with the approval of Xuzhou Medical University Ethics Committee.

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Song, L., Yao, S., Zheng, D. et al. Astaxanthin attenuates contrast-induced acute kidney injury in rats via ROS/NLRP3 inflammasome. Int Urol Nephrol 54, 1355–1364 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11255-021-03015-1

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