Effect of rosmarinic acid on potassium bromate induced renal cortical oxidative stress and apoptosis in adult male albino rat

Potassium bromate (KBrO3) is widely used as a food additive and is a major water disinfection by-product, in spite of its well-known oxidative cell and tissue damage. Therefore, the therapeutic effi-cacy of rosmarinic acid is examined to alleviate KBrO3 mediated renal oxidative damage. For this purpose, 24 adult male albino rats were catego-rized into four groups; group 1 (control); group 2: received 50 mg/Kg/day rosmarinic acid orally for 4 weeks; group 3: received 20 mg/Kg/dose KBrO3 orally twice weekly for 4 weeks, and group 4: re-ceived both KBrO3 and rosmarinic acid. After 4 weeks, serum was collected for analysis of kidney functions and kidneys were sampled for histo-pathological and biochemical analysis. The results indicated that treatment with rosmarinic acid signif-icantly abated most of the indices and biomarkers of the renal toxicity caused by KBrO3. It signifi-cantly ameliorated histopathological changes and the changes in the immunoexpression of proapop-totic protein (Bax), antiapoptotic protein (Bcl2) and inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) induced by KBrO3. Taken together, it could be concluded that the rosmarinic acid has a beneficial effect against KBrO3-induced nephrotoxicity by its antioxidant and antiapoptotic effects.