Histological effects of chronic consumption of soda pop drinks on kidney of adult Wister rats

BACKGROUND: Health concerns over soda pop drinks have been severally report. However, histological perspectives are not very common. AIM: The objective of this study is to investigate histological effect of chronic consumption of soda pop drinks on the kidney of adult Wistar rats. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The rats of both sexes (n = 24), with average weight of 200g were randomly assigned into two treatment (A & B) (n=16) and Control (c) (n=8) groups. The rats in the treatment group (A) received a brand of soda pop drink on a daily basis for thirty days. The rats in treatment group (B) received another brand of soda drink, while the control group (C) received equal amount of water for the same period. The rats were given the drinks as well as feeds liberally for thirty days, and sacrificed by cervical dislocation on the thirty-first day of the experiment. The kidney was carefully dissected out and quickly fixed in 10% formal saline for histological study. RESULTS: The findings indicate that rats in the treated groups (A&B) showed some varying degree of distortion and disruption of the renal structure. There are observable diffuse signs of glomerulonephritis with some congestion and tubular necrosis as compared to the control group. CONCLUSION: Chronic consumption of soda pop drinks may affect the microanatomy of the kidney of adult Wistar rats. Further study aimed at corroborating these observations in humans is warranted.