Comparative evaluation of the toxicity of Amikacin and Cefepime on rat’s kidney and liver

Aminoglycosides are known to cause oxidative stress related toxicities and tissue injuries and Cefepime is cephalosporin class of antibiotics having potential of free radical scavenging properties. The objective of present study was to evaluate effect of Amikacin on various antioxidant enzymes (Superoxide dismutase Catalase and Glutathione Reductase) along with malonaldialdehyde levels and extracellular antioxidants (Creatinine, Total Bilirubin and uric acid) in renal tissues of male albino rats and to compare the same with the changes produced by Cefepime. Our findings showed that the activities of the antioxidant enzymes were significantly lowered with increase in MDA levels and extracellular antioxidants after single treatment of amikacin as compared to control group. A significant improvement in antioxidant enzymes along with significant lesser decrease in creatinine, total bilrubin, uric acid and MDA levels were observed in Cefepime treated groups as compared to amikacin treated group. These results indicate that, as documented earlier about the broader spectrum of activity of cephalosporins, they also contains the free radical scavenging property and prevents to a greater extent from the hepatotoxicity and nephrotoxicity as compared to the same induced by aminoglycosides.