Renal toxicity of lisinopril and rosuvastatin, alone and in combination, in Wistar rats

The aim of study was to evaluate the effect of commonly used lisinopril, rosuvastatin and their combined action on site-specific nephrotoxicity in rats using clusterin and microalbumin nephrotoxic biomarkers and other related parameters using oral gavage. Rosuvastatin at 2 different doses showed increase in urinary microalbumin levels whereas lisinopril and its combination with rosuvastatin at 2 different doses did not show urinary microalbumin excretion indicating beneficial effects of lisinopril in terms of reducing microalbumin. Urinary clusterin levels significantly increased in high-dose treated animals of lisinopril and rosuvastatin. The use of lisinopril plus rosuvastatin at low dose also led to worsened renal function by raising urinary clusterin levels (217 ± 4.6 ng/ml) when compared with the control (143 ± 3.3 ng/ml). Renal histopathology showed multifocal regeneration of tubules indicating proximal tubule damaged. These results indicate that lisinopril (50 mg/kg), rosuvastatin (100 mg/kg), lisinopril+rosuvastatin (20+40 mg/kg) and lisinopril+rosuvastatin (50+100 mg/kg) showed toxicity only on proximal tubules.