Ginger and diabetic nephropathy

Hypothesis Implication for health policy/practice/research/medical education: The combination of metformin and ginger extract may be more effective for the control of diabetes and may have additive protective efficacy on diabetic nephropathy. N ephropathy of the diabetes is one of the most important complications of this illness. Recently, much attention has been made toward the possible kidney protective properties of ginger in diabetic patients. To find the ameliorative effect of ginger extract against tubular damage induced by gentamicin, we conducted an experimental study, on 50 male Wistar rats, which were allocated into 5 groups of 10 and treated as group I: vehicle, group II: ginger for 3 days then, gentamicin for 7 days, group III ginger orally for 3 days, then ginger plus gentamicin for 7 days, group IV: gentamicin for 7 days. Group V: gentamicin for 10 days, and finally group VI: gentamicin for 7 days, then ginger orally for 10 days. At the end of the study, kidneys were removed for histological evaluation. In this study, we observed that ginger could prevent degeneration of the renal cells and reduce the severity of tubular damage caused by gentamicin. We concluded that ginger is effective as a prophylaxis agent for renal tubular cells against injurious substances acts like gentamicin (1). In the study conducted by Tzeng et al, the ameliorative effects of ginger on renal damage in diabetic rat was investigated. In their study, diabetic rats were treated orally with ginger or metformin for 8 weeks. They found that ginger displayed similar characteristics to those of metformin in reducing hyperglycemia and renal dysfunction in diabetic rats. The pathological examinations revealed amelioration of diabetes-induced glomerular pathological changes following the treatment with ginger. Furthermore, the protein expressions of renal nephrin and podocin in diabetic rats were significantly increased following the treatment with ginger. They suggested that the renoprotective effects of ginger may be similar, with the action of metformin, to the prevention of AMP-activated protein kinase protein phosphorylation (2). Metformin has been widely used in the diabetics, especially type II diabetes. Recently, the possible kidney protective role of metformin was been noticed (3). In the study of Morales et al, ameliorative properties of metformin against, gentamicin-induced renal tubular damage were shown (4). To find the potential efficacy of metformin to kidney protection against gentamicin-induced acute kidney injury and also to test, whether delay treatment with metformin in acute kidney injury, exerts similar efficacy …