Experimental verification of protective effect of hydrogen-rich water against cisplatin-induced nephrotoxicity in rats using dynamic contrast-enhanced CT
Kitamura A, Kobayashi S, Matsushita T, Fujinawa H, Murase K. · British Journal of Radiology. 2010;83(990):509.
What kind of evidence is this?
Preclinical
Three-group controlled rat study with repeated dynamic contrast-enhanced CT
Kidney and urinary health
H₂-rich water
Not reported in this record.
Not reported in this record.
Methods at a glance
Thirty eight-week-old male Sprague-Dawley rats in a cisplatin-nephrotoxicity model.
30 rats: untreated control n=6, cisplatin with standard water n=12, and cisplatin with H₂-rich water n=12.
H₂ water from seven days before cisplatin through the final day-7 assessment; CT on days 0, 2, 4 and 7.
Ad-libitum H₂-rich water beginning seven days before intraperitoneal cisplatin 3.6 mg/kg and continuing through day 7 after injection.
H₂ dissolved in drinking water — H₂ only, not Brown's gas.
Dissolved H₂ concentration was 1.2 ± 0.1 mg/L in sealed 200 mL aluminium pouches. Daily water intake and ingested H₂ dose per kg were not reported.
Not applicable — drinking water, not gas inhalation.
No O₂ was co-delivered as part of the intervention.
Healthy rats with standard water and cisplatin-treated rats with standard water.
Outcomes and reported result
Renal contrast clearance per tissue volume and for the whole kidney, renal volume, serum creatinine, body weight and renal histopathology.
Normalized renal-clearance measures were higher with H₂ water than with cisplatin plus standard water on days 2, 4 and 7; day-7 creatinine and tubular damage were lower. The treatment and healthy-control groups did not differ significantly for normalized whole-kidney clearance on days 2 and 7 or for serum creatinine. Whole-kidney clearance still fell significantly from baseline on day 4 in the H₂ group.
The complete free PMC article was checked for all groups, water concentration and timing, functional and histological outcomes, null comparisons, safety comments, commercial material provision and available disclosures.
A reported association, difference or mechanism is not automatically a clinical benefit. Null findings, outcome type, study design and precision all matter.
Cautions and applicability
Small animal study, unequal group sizes, preventive exposure starting before cisplatin, ad-libitum intake not quantified, short seven-day follow-up, repeated iodinated-contrast imaging and no assessment of cisplatin antitumour efficacy in this experiment. I'rom Pharmaceutical provided the H₂ water and one author was affiliated with that company; no explicit funding or conflict declaration was identified, so absence is not inferred.
Experimental cisplatin nephrotoxicity in rats; it does not establish kidney protection in patients receiving chemotherapy.
Not reported in this record.
Not reported in this record.
Not reported in this record.
No single-study GRADE certainty rating is assigned. Certainty is assessed by important outcome across a complete eligible evidence set, not by attaching a final grade to one source.
Sources and record status
PMID: 20505032 · DOI: 10.1259/bjr/25604811
Free full article in PubMed Central.
Complete PMC article and PubMed metadata; full-text extraction checked 9 August 2026.
2026-08-10