Effects of Fasciola Gigantica on kidney of rabbits [Lagomorpha]: biochemical, histopathological and electrophoretic studies by

ABSTRACT

The effect of Fasciola gigantica on kidney of the rabbit Oryctolagus cuniculus was studied. Two animals died with mortality rate of 16.6%. All rabbits were successfully infected and all yielded fasciolid ova. Biochemical studies of infected rabbits revealed that levels of total billirubin, serum creatinine and serum urea were 5.43 mg/dl, 1.40 mg/dl and 72.88 mg/dl respectively [P>0.001 for all values]. Histopathological changes in the kidney of rabbits infected with F. gigantica involved pronounced mesamgio-proliferative glomerulonephritis and membranoproliferative glomeurolnephritis. Other glomerulopathies included atrophid glomeruli accompanied with eosinophilic infiltration around impaired glomeruli with sometimes marked increase in Bowman's space. Necrosis was also observed in different foci in the kidney of infected rabbits. Medullary region exhibited narrowing in renal tubules and so dilatation in renal veins by mean of renal enlargement. Nuclei of Bowman's capsule turned crescent shaped indicating starching of the capsule. Scanning of SPS-PAGE gels of kidney protein for both control and infected rabbits revealed that ten types of protein bands were detected. In control rabbits, the molecular weights [MWs] of detected proteins ranged between 94.55-12.57 KD. In infected rabbits, MWs ranged between 104.35-20.01 KD. All MWs without exception increased in infected animals and it is postulated that such increase was due to immune-complex took place in kidney due to deposition of metabolic products of the fluke among renal parenchyma. Percent amount of detected proteins ranged from 7.2-21.2 and amount in band 9 were the same for both infected and treated rabbits but increases in control rabbits in band number ten. It has been concluded that F. gigantica induced not only hepatic but also renal damage in infected rabbits