In vivo pathological evaluation of metformin induced toxicity in Wistar rats

Metformin is commonly used drug to treat Diabetes and its chronic use may lead to nephropathy in humans as well as in animals. This study aimed to evaluate the role of Metformin treatment for long period on the structure and functionality of kidneys in rats. In this study, twenty wistar rats were randomly distributed into two groups in which 10 animals are kept in each group. The first group served as the control and the second group received Metformin hydrochloride at a dose of 30 mg/ kg body weight/day for a period of twenty one consecutive days. At the end of study period, all rats were sacrificed to analyze the hematological, biochemical and the pathomorphological changes in the kidneys of rats. The results revealed that Metformin causes severe renal dysfunctions in rats as evidenced in biochemical analysis and histopathology of kidneys. In addition to this, the hematological parameters did not show any significant change in Metformin intoxicated rats.