Cytopathology & Histopathology

Biography

Biography: Hamed Benghuzzi

Abstract

It was reported in numerous studies that estrogen replacement therapy in post-menopausal women may interfere with the functional capacity of the renal system. Strong scientific evidence about the level of alternation at the glomerular level has to be elucidated. Several experiments conducted in our laboratories hypothesized that sustained delivery of estrogen will alter the glomerular structure and function. The specific objective of this research was to evaluate the effect of physiological dose (10-20 pg./ml) of sustained delivery of estrogen on the glomerular histopathology using adult ovariectomized adult rats as a model. A total of 120 rats were divided into four equal groups and served as intact, control, sham (OVX), exposed to sustained delivery of E, respectively. At the end of 2, 4 and 8 weeks post treatment ten animals from each group were sacrificed and the kidney were removed, fixed and processed for histopathological evaluation following standard laboratory protocols. Blood samples were collected daily for eight weeks and subjected to differential hematology. The results of this study demonstrated that the wet weights of the kidneys collected from estrogen treated animals has shown a slight increase in weight compared to intact animals (p< 0.05). Histopathological evaluation revealed that the glomeruli appeared slightly larger in the E treated animals compared OVX, Sham and intact animals. Occasional tubular damage was observed at the end of 8 week phase in estrogen exposed animals. Major shift in essential biomarkers were noted upon sustained delivery of estrogen at the end of two weeks. Gonadotropins levels were suppressed in all estrogen treated animals compared to OVX group. This observation may contribute to a functional change in the filtration rate and has to be taken in consideration in the renal function assessment.