Figure 2.

Histological demonstration of the protective effects of MSC against rat kidney toxicity induced by CDDP treatment in Fischer rats. Kidneys of rats were taken on day 6 from the treatment of MSC alone, CDDP alone, CDDP plus MSC, and untreated controls. The CDDP was administered as a single i.v. injection at 6 mg kg⁻¹ (MTD) and MSC 0.75 mg per rat per day by p.o. daily for 20 days, with the first dose having started 14 days before CDDP treatment. Conventional formalin–paraffin sections were stained using haematoxylin and eosin ( × 100 magnification). Representative photomicrograph in (A) shows the histomorphology of normal kidney from an untreated rat; (B) shows no any histomorphological change by MSC alone; (C) shows that CDDP alone induced severe tubular damage with irregular, dilated proximal, and distal tubules (arrows) lined with flat epithelium; MSC significantly protected from CDDP-induced toxicity with almost normal kidney histology in the rat treated with MSC plus CDDP in (D). Each group had nine rats in total from two independent experiments (three rats for each group from the first experiment and six rats for each group from the second experiment). Pictures are shown of only one representative kidney for each group.