Figure 1.
Therapeutic effect of haem oxygenase (HO)-1 in protecting against carboplatin (Cbpt)-mediated renal injury. (A) Animals were pretreated with cobalt protoporphyrin (CoPP) alone or in combination with tin protoporphyrin (SnPP). This modulated the expression or activity of HO-1 before giving carboplatin (100 mg·kg−1) once daily, over a 3 day period. Animals were divided into five groups (n = 6): control (Ctrl); carboplatin alone; and carboplatin plus additional pretreatment with CoPP, SnPP, or both. Kidneys were embedded and sectioned for apoptotic and histological evaluations by terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase dUTP nick end labeling and haematoxylin and eosin staining and immunochemical staining of HO-1. (B) Serum from treated animals was collected to assess kidney and liver functions, including levels of creatinine, blood urea nitrogen (BUN), and alanine transaminase (GPT). (C) Lysates of kidney homogenization were analysed for protein levels of nuclear factor of activated T-lymphocyte-3 (NFAT3) (140 kDa; dephosphorylated NFAT3) and HO-1 in response to various treatments, and β-actin was used as the internal control to indicate equal amounts of protein loading. A representative result of three separate experiments is shown. Additionally, the activity of the induced-HO-1 expression in each group was evaluated. This is shown in the lower panel of Figure 1C. Data shown in Figure 1B,C are presented as the mean ± SD of three independent experiments. *P < 0.05, significantly different from control group; #P < 0.05, significantly different from carboplatin-treatment alone.