Artemisinin ameliorated proteinuria in rats with adriamycin-induced nephropathy through regulating nephrin and podocin expressions

• Published in: Journal of traditional Chinese medicine 2014-02, Vol.34 (1), p.63-68
• Main Authors: Wu, Xili, An, Peng, Ye, Bingyu, Shi, Xingmin, Dang, Huimin, Fu, Rongguo, Qiao, Chenglin
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Animals; Artemisinins - administration & dosage; Doxorubicin - adverse effects; Humans; Intracellular Signaling Peptides and Proteins - genetics; Intracellular Signaling Peptides and Proteins - metabolism; Kidney Diseases - chemically induced; Kidney Diseases - drug therapy; Kidney Diseases - genetics; Kidney Diseases - metabolism; Male; Membrane Proteins - genetics; Membrane Proteins - metabolism; Proteinuria - chemically induced; Proteinuria - drug therapy; Proteinuria - genetics; Proteinuria - metabolism; Rats; 大鼠; 生化分析仪; 肾病; 蛋白尿; 蛋白表达; 逆转录聚合酶链反应; 阿霉素; 青蒿素
• ISSN: 0255-2922
• DOI: 10.1016/S0254-6272(14)60056-X

OBJECTIVE： To investigate the effects of artemis- inin against proteinuria and glomerular filtration barrier damage in rats with adriamycin-induced ne- phropathy, and the potential mechanism under- pinned the action. METHODS： Forty adriamycin rats were randomly di- vided into two groups with the ratio of 1 ︰ 3; the small-number group served as control group（n= 10）, and the rats in the large-number group were treated with adriamycin to induce nephropathy; then they were further randomly assigned into 3 subgroups： benazepril group（n=10）, artemisiningroup（n=10）, and adriamycin group（n=10）. The benazepril group and artemisinin group were treat- ed with benazepril suspl（5.0 mg/kg daily） and arte- misinin suspl（150 mg/kg daily） respectively after being modeled; those in the control group and adriamycin group were intragastrically adminis- tered an equivalent volume of distilled water every day. The treatment after model establishment last- ed for a total of 4 weeks. The 24 h uric protein, blood biochemicals, renal pathological changes, re- nal ultrastrutural changes, Nephrin and Podocin proteins and gene expressions were measured by Coomassie brilliant blue assay, completely automat- ic biochemical analyzer, light microscope, electron microscopy, Western blot and reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction, respectively. RESULTS： The rats in adriamycin group showed a significant increase in 24 h uric protein excretion, serum total cholesterol（TC）, triglyceride（TG）, blood urea nitrogen（BUN）, serum creatinine（Scr） and decrease in albumin（Alb）（P0.05 or P0.01）. Compared with adriamycin group, artemisinin could reduce uric protein excretion, decrease the serum TC, TG elevation, increase the serum Alb lev- el, up-regulate the expressions of Nephrin and Podocin（P0.05 or P0.01）, but no statistical signif- icance effects on the levels of BUN, Scr in artemis- inin group（P0.05）. The renal pathological and ul- trastrutural observation indicate that artemisinin could attenuate the severity of foot process efface- ment and fusion in the nephropathic rats. CONCLUSION： Artemisinin might have an effect on the nephropathy in rats caused by adriamycin, which may be at least partly correlated with attenu-ation of the severity of foot process effacement and fusion, up-regulation of the expressions of Nephrin and Podocin in the glomeruli in the rats.