Renoprotective effects of olmesartan medoxomil on diabetic nephropathy in streptozotocin-induced diabetes in rats.

Olmesartan medoxomil (OM) is one of the newest members of the angiotensin receptor blocker (ARB) family. The renoprotective effects of the angiotensin II type 1 receptor antagonist OM was investigated in a streptozotocin (STZ)-induced diabetic rat model. In this study, we investigated whether OM was able to ameliorate diabetic nephropathy (DN). Thirty male Sprague Dawley rats were assigned to 3 groups: the non-diabetic (group A, n=10), the untreated STZ-induced DN control (group B, n=10) and the STZ-induced DN treated with OM (group C, n=10). Blood pressure (BP) and glucose, creatinine (Cr), blood urea nitrogen (BUN), superoxide dismutase (SOD), malondialdehyde (MDA) microalbumin and urinary protein concentrations were measured. In STZ diabetic rats, BP, glucose, Cr, BUN, MDA and urinary protein levels were significantly increased compared to the non-diabetic control group. OM significantly improved the biological indices in the DN rats. The renal pathological changes were also observed under a light microscope. Our results suggested that OM exerted renoprotective effects on rats with STZ-induced diabetes.