Background: Diarrhea is the increase in the excretion of human water;
meanwhile, fisetin, a bioactive flavonol molecule, is widely used in the
treatment/prevention of gastrointestinal disorders. The purpose of this study is
to investigate the anti-diarrheal activity of fisetin by restoring kidney
function, antioxidant activity, inflammatory markers, Na/K-ATPase
level, apoptosis, and protein content in diarrheal rats. Methods: A
total of 36 male rats were distributed into two groups (18 rats/group): normal
and diarrheal. The normal group was further divided into three subgroups (6
rats/subgroup): Control, fisetin, and desmopressin drug
subgroups, consisting of normal rats orally treated once a day for 4 weeks with 1
mL distilled water, 50 mg/kg fisetin, and 1 mg/kg desmopressin drug,
respectively. A lactose diet containing 35% lactose was fed to the normal rats
for a month. The diarrheal rats were also divided into three subgroups (6
rats/subgroup): diarrheal rats, diarrheal rats + fisetin, and diarrheal rats + desmopressin drug groups, whereby the diarrheal rats
were orally treated once a day for 4 weeks with 1 mL distilled water, 50 mg/kg
fisetin, and 1 mg/kg desmopressin drug, respectively. Results: Fisetin
significantly decreased serum urea (41.20 2.6–29.74 2.65),
creatinine (1.43 0.05–0.79 0.06), and urinary volume (1.30
0.41–0.98 0.20), while significantly increasing kidney weight
(0.48 0.03–0.67 0.07), sodium, potassium, and chloride balance
in both serum and urine. Fisetin significantly increased the antioxidant activity
(superoxide dismutase (1170 40–3230 50), glutathione peroxidase
(365 18–775 16), catalase (0.09 0.03–0.14
0.06), and nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate hydrogen (NADPH) oxidase activity (8.6 1.31–10.5 1.25), while significantly
decreasing malondialdehyde (19.38 0.54–9.54 0.83), conjugated
dienes (1.86 0.24–1.64 0.19), and oxidative index (0.62
0.04–0.54 0.05)), alongside the inflammatory markers (tumor necrosis
factor- (65.2 2.59–45.3 2.64), interleukin-1,
interleukin-6 (107 4.5–56.1 7.2), and interleukin-10) in the
diarrheal rats to values approaching the control values. Fisetin also restored
the Na/K-ATPase level, apoptosis, protein content, and kidney
architecture in diarrheal rats to be near the control group.
Conclusions: Fisetin treated diarrhea in rats by restoring kidney
function, antioxidant activity, inflammatory markers, apoptosis, proteome
content, and histology.