Fucoidan improves the renal blood flow in the early stage of renal ischemia/reperfusion injury in the rat.

It has been shown that monoclonal anti-P-selectin antibody administration protects renal function in an ischemic model of acute renal failure. This study was designed to evaluate the effect of administration of fucoidan, P-selectin inhibitor, on reduction in renal blood flow induced by ischemia/reperfusion injury in the rat. Experiments were performed on male Wistar rats weighting 35-400 g. The systemic blood pressure (mm Hg) (BP) and renal blood flow (RBF) were monitored continuously and renal vascular resistance (RVR) was calculated. After 20 min period of stabilization animals (6 rats in each group) received one of the following agents administered by continuous i.v. infusion during 165 min: 1 mg/kg of body weight of fucoidan (F1), 10 mg/kg of fucoidan (F10), 100 mg/kg of fucoidan (F100), 10 mg/kg of heparin (H), or 0.9% NaCl solution (control). After 15 min of drug administration the renal vessels of the both kidney were occluded with vascular clamps for 60 min. There were no significant changes in the initial values of RBF, RVR and BP between groups. None procedure affected significantly BP during all experiments. In F10 RBF returned to the initial values in 70th min of reperfusion and did not change up to 90th min. This value was significantly higher than respective value in the control group. In F1 group RBF in 90th min was also higher than in the control group, but it was not statistically significant. The dose of heparine and fucoidan used in the H and F100 groups failed to preserve RBF during reperfusion. In the present study we found that administration of fucoidan--P-selectin inhibitor, increases significantly postischemic renal blood flow and may have renoprotective activity.