Effects of orange juice intake on Doxorubicin-induced hepatotoxicity and nephrotoxicity in Wistar rats

Considering that doxorubicin (DOXO) is an anticancer agent with severe adverse effects, this preclinical study investigated the protective effect of ‘pera’ orange juice (POJ) intake on DOXO-induced hepatic and renal toxicities. To this end, male Wistar rats were treated with DOXO in chronic (4.0 mg/kg weekly for four weeks) and acute (16.0 mg/kg in the fourth week) regimens. The experimental groups received filtered water or pasteurized POJ. After euthanasia, livers and kidneys were evaluated histologically and immunohistochemically for Ki-67 and histone γ-H2A.X markers, and their data were analyzed by One-Way ANOVA followed by Tukey’s a posteriori test. In this way, it was observed that DOXO caused weight loss, histological changes and increased damage markers. POJ reduced these changes only in chronic treatment, which allows us to conclude that the orange juice may attenuate the hepatotoxicity and nephrotoxicity of DOXO at low and fractionated doses.