Effect of Drugs Used in the Treatment of Diabetes & Hypertension in Urea & the Creatinine Level in Streptozotocin Induced Diabetes in Rats

Co-morbidity of diabetes and hypertension have severe effects on kidney function, these effects are due to the elevated pressure in the kidney due to hypertension and the oxidative stress caused by hyper glycemic. Uncontrolled hyperglycemia and hypertension lead to the growth of micro and macro vascular complications. Patients suffering from these diseases usually are treated with calcium channel blocking agents, aspirin and metformin. A combination of medications may have beneficial or adverse effects on the patients. The objective of this study is to see the effect of this combination on kidney function by measuring the serum levels of urea and creatinine in diabetic rats.

Blood samples were studied before treatment and after 10 days and analyzed for urea and creatinine. ANOVA test was done to compare the urea and creatinine levels in rats with STZ induced hyperglycemia after 10 days treatment. In case of urea and creatinine, there was a significant difference (p < 0.000) between the group treated with metformin alone and the control group, (Metformin + Nifedipine) group, and (Metformin + Aspirin) group. Again, there was no significant difference (P > 0.197) in creatinine level between the groups treated with (metformin + aspirin), (metformin + Nifedipine). These results conclude that using metformin when there is kidney dysfunction may aggravate the situation while the combination of metformin with aspirin and or with nifedipine as in case of diabetes associated with hypertension may be beneficial in attenuating the complications of diabetes and hypertension on the kidney, a further study may be needed to confirm this finding.