Renal protective effects of vitamin E for drug-induced kidney injury: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Lingfei Meng ^1,2 Shengmao Liu ¹ Xinmiao Shi ³ Wenpeng Cui ^1*

• ¹ Jilin University, Changchun, China
• ² Second Affiliated Hospital of Jilin University, Changchun, Jilin Province, China
• ³ Global Medical Information and Education, Fresenius Medical Care, 100028, Beijing, China., beijing, China

Introduction: Acute kidney injury (AKI) is a key clinical condition that has puzzled clinicians for many years since there is currently no efficient drug therapy. Vitamin E is found to exert a vital antioxidant role and can protect the kidney. However, clinical studies analyzing the correlation of vitamin E with AKI are scarce, and no consistent conclusions are reported from current studies. Therefore, this study was performed to evaluate the impact of vitamin E on treating AKI.Methods: PubMed, Embase, and Cochrane library databases were comprehensively searched on December 27, 2023. Qualified studies were selected following the eligibility criteria. The incidence of AKI, serum creatinine and urea nitrogen levels after vitamin E treatment were evaluated. Then, the data were combined with the fixed-or random-effects model depending on the heterogeneity test results.Results: Six eligible randomized controlled trials that used vitamin E for prevention of kidney injury were included. According to our pooled analysis, vitamin E elevated eGFR level (MD: 0.36; 95% CI [0.19, 0.53], p =0.000), reduced serum creatinine level (MD: -0.32; 95% CI [-0.48, 0.16], p = 0.000) and effectively inhibited the occurrence of AKI (RR: 0.69; 95% CI [0.49, 0.98], p = 0.036).Vitamin E elevates eGFR level, reduces serum creatinine level, and efficiently suppresses AKI occurrence.