Therapeutic effect of swimming training and arbutin supplement on diabetes-induced renal oxidative stress

Background and Objective: The tissue oxidative stress is the most important factor in the development of diabetic kidney disease. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the therapeutic effect of swimming training and Arbutin supplement on diabetes-induced renal oxidative stress.

Materials and Methods: 42 male Wistar rats were randomly divided into 6 groups (7 rats per group) of control, diabetes, Arbutin, diabetes-Arbutin, diabetes-training and diabetes-combinatorial. Diabetes was induced by alloxan (90 mg/kg, intraperitoneally) in rats and Arbutin (50 mg/kg, i.p.) was administered for 5 days/week. The animals were exercised by swimming training at 5 min to 36 min per day, five days a week over six weeks. The rats were killed 48 h after the last treatments and renal malondialdehyde, catalase level and superoxide dismutase (SOD) activity were evaluated. A one-way analysis of variance was used for data analysis.

Results: Diabetes significantly increased renal malondialdehyde level and decreased renal SOD activity and catalase level (p = 0.000). Six weeks of supplementation with Arbutin and swimming training was associated with a significant decrease in malondialdehyde and elevated catalase level compared with diabetes group (p=0.000). But superoxide dismutase activity significantly increased in diabetes-combinatorial group (p=0.001).

Conclusion: Our results confirm that regular swimming training and Arbutin supplement protect against oxidative stress-induced kidney damage by up-regulation of antioxidants and decreasing malondialdehyde in diabetic rats.