Data of Thesis

The cylindrospermopsin (CYN), a cyanotoxin, is a hydrophilic alkaloid with 415 Da. It has been described as a potent inhibitor of protein synthesis capable of causing serious damage to various organs. Studies demonstrated that the kidney was the most affected organ. Several cases of poisoning have been associated with this molecule, such as the mysterious disease Palm Island in Australia and the event in Caruaru-PE, in which patients from a hemodialysis clinic received contaminated water intravenously. Therefore, the aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of CYN in the male mice’s renal tissue. Dose-response curves with single doses intraperitoneal injection of purified CYN were performed (0, 16, 32, 64, 128, 160 µg of CYN / kg body weight) in 10 weeks male Balb/C (n = 4 animals). All animals that received doses of 128 and 160 µg of CYN/kg died within the first 72 h after toxin administration. There was no change of GFR in the 7th and the 14th days, nor in nephrin expression, a critical protein for glomerular integrity, in any of the doses. It was observed low molecular weight proteinuria and increased excretion of tubular enzymes: lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) and gamma glutamyl transferase (GGT) at doses of 16, 32 and 64 µg of CYN /kg body weight. In addition, these animals also presented respectively, increased renal interstitial space and collagen deposition, which indicates edema and fibrosis. These results suggest that CYN was able to cause a predominantly tubular damage in animals’ kidneys. Simple variance analysis (one way ANOVA) followed by Tukey's multiple comparison test were performed, using GraphPad Prism 5.0 software.