Background: Cisplatin, as an antineoplastic drug widely used for treatment of solid tumors, induces renal toxicity by free radical formation.

Objectives: The aim of the present study was to identify the histological changes of renal parenchyma after a single dose injection of cisplatin in rat, as an experimental model.

Patients and Methods: Twenty adult male Sprague Dawley rats, weighting about 210 ± 30 g, were randomly divided into experimental (10) and control (10) groups. The experimental group received a single dose injection of cisplatin intraperitoneally (5 mg/kg). One week after the injection, rats of both groups received deep anesthesia and were scarified. The tissue samples were removed and the prepared sections were stained by H&E and periodic acid–Schiff (PAS) methods. The slides were used for both histopathological and morphometric studies. The collected data were analyzed by SPSS.

Results: Statistical analysis by Mann-Whitney test showed that there was a significant difference in the height of epithelium between the proximal convoluted tubule (PCT) and the distal convoluted tubule (DCT) of the experimental and control groups (P < 0.001). There was no significant difference in the urinary space diameter between the experimental and control groups. Focal tubular necrosis and vacuolar and eosinophilic degenerations were more prominent in the experimental group.

Conclusions: It seems that cisplatin can induce many quantitative and qualitative changes in proximal and distal convoluted tubules of nephron in rats.