RESUMO
BACKGROUND: Tissue iron deposition may disturb functions of the organs. In many diseases like thalassemia, the patients suffer from iron deposition in kidney and heart tissues. Deferoxamine (DF) is a synthetic iron chelator and silymarin (SM) is an antioxidant and also a candidate for iron chelating. This study was designed to investigate the effect of DF and SM combination against kidney and heart iron deposition in an iron overload rat model. METHODS: Male Wistar rats were randomly assigned to 5 groups. The iron overloading was performed by iron dextran 100 mg/kg/day every other day during 2 weeks and in the 3(rd) week, iron dextran was discontinued and the animals were treated daily with combination of SM (200 mg/kg/day, i.p.) and DF (50 mg/kg/day, i.p.) (group 1), SM (group 2), DF (group 3) and saline (group 4). Group 5 received saline during the experiment. Finally, blood samples were obtained and kidney, heart and liver were immediately removed and prepared for histopathological procedures. RESULTS: The results indicated no significant difference in kidney function and endothelial function biomarkers between the groups. However, combination of SM and DF did not attenuate the iron deposition in the kidney, liver and heart. DF alone, rather than DF and SM combination, significantly reduced the serum level of malondialdehyde (P < 0.05). Co-administration of SM and DF significantly increased the serum level of ferritin (P < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: DF and SM may be potentially considered as iron chelators. However, combination of these two agents did not provide a protective effect against kidney, liver and heart iron deposition.