Effects of Fermented Crescentia cujete on Urinalysis, Cyclooxygenase-2, Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor, and Renal Function in Unilateral Hydronephrotic Rats

Pribadi, Oscar Maulana and Prakoso, Yos Adi and Wijayanti, Agustina Dwi and Susilo, Achmadi and Widyarini, Sitarina (2026) Effects of Fermented Crescentia cujete on Urinalysis, Cyclooxygenase-2, Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor, and Renal Function in Unilateral Hydronephrotic Rats. World's Veterinary Journal. 191 - 200. ISSN 23224568

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Abstract

Unilateral ureteral obstruction (UUO) leads to increased intraluminal pressure, causing a compensatory impact on the contralateral kidney. Common treatments involving diuretics and surgical interventions often fail to offer a complete resolution of the underlying renal damage. Fermented Crescentia cujete (FCC), an herbal-derived product with multifaceted therapeutic benefits, presents a potential alternative treatment. The present study aimed to evaluate the potential of FCC to protect renal function using UUO rat models. The study employed 30 male Sprague Dawley rats (6 months old, weighing 253.76 ± 8.32 g) which were distributed randomly into five distinct groups, including a healthy control (T1), a sham-operated group (T2), an untreated UUO group (T3), a group receiving UUO plus 92.5 mg/kg BW Prive Uricran® (T4), and a group receiving UUO plus 5.92 mg/kg BW FCC (T5). The test subjects received oral gavage treatment twice daily over a period of 14 days. On day 15, serum and urine were assessed to assess blood urea nitrogen (BUN) and creatinine concentrations, and urinalysis. Moreover, the rats were euthanized, and the kidney tissue was harvested to assess the immunoexpression of cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF). The results showed that unilateral hydronephrosis caused significant renal impairment in the untreated group (T3) compared to the healthy (T1) and sham (T2) groups. The changes in the T3 group were characterized by marked elevations in BUN and creatinine, deteriorated urinalysis profiles, and a surge in COX-2 and VEGF immunoexpression. Therapeutic intervention with FCC (T5) successfully mitigated compensatory effects, demonstrating a capacity to restore urinalysis parameters to levels compared to T1 and T2. Furthermore, the treatment effectively downregulated COX-2 and VEGF immunoexpression in the contralateral renal tissue, reducing them to levels statistically indistinguishable from those of the healthy control. The present findings confirmed that FCC has a reno-protective activity on the contralateral kidney following UUO induction, evidenced by stabilized urinalysis profiles and suppressed COX-2 and VEGF immunoexpression. © The Author(s) 2026. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

Item Type:	Article
Keywords:	Cyclooxygenase-2; Fermented Crescentia cujete; Hydronephrosis; Unilateral ureteral obstruction; Vascular endothelial growth factor
Subjects:	S Agriculture > SF Animal culture
Divisions:	World's Veterinary Journal (WVJ)
Page Range:	191 - 200
Journal or Publication Title:	World's Veterinary Journal
Journal Index:	Scopus
Volume:	16
Number:	1
Publisher:	Scienceline Publication
Identification Number:	https://doi.org/10.54203/scil.2026.wvj18
ISSN:	23224568
Depositing User:	Dr. Alireza Sadeghi
URI:	https://eprints.science-line.com/id/eprint/1733

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