ABSTRACT
Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is becoming a global social problem. It is important to slow down the progression of CKD for economic and social concerns. In recent years, it has been found that colon is one of the vital organs which produce uremic toxins. And enterogenous uremic toxins are closely related to the prognosis of CKD. Theory of gut-kidney axis for the slowdown of CKD progression was raised by foreign scholars and became the research hot spot. Colon therapy with traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) has been widely used in clinical practice and is believed to slow down the progression of CKD by numerous clinical reports. However, low re-search quality and ambiguous results limited its further application. Under the guidance of senior TCM Professor Huang Chunlin, who emphasized the method of draining turbidity through bowels in the management of CKD, from the Nephrology Center, Guangdong Provincial Hospital of Chinese Medicine, as well as the modern theory of gut-kidney axis, we had carried out a series of exploratory researches which will provide data and methodology support for further confirmatory studies and improve its effectiveness.
ABSTRACT
This study was aimed to observe renoprotective effect and possible mechanism on Y i-Shui Sheng-Xin Yin in spontaneously hypertensive rats. Sixty 12-week male SHR rats were randomly divided into six groups , which were the Y i-Shui She ng-X in Y in low-dose group , middle-dose group , high-dose group , Benazepril group , model group and blank control group , and ten rats for each group . The SHR rats were sacrificed after eight weeks . The urine microalbumin , blood urea nitrogen and cystatin were tested in each rat . The HE and Masson staining method were used to observe changes of renal pathology . Changes of expression of transforming growth factor-β1 ( TGF-β1 ) , connective tissue growth factor ( CTGF ) , FN were detected by immunohistochemistry . The results showed that compared with the blank control group , blood pressure in model group was associated with a significant rise after 8 weeks. Compared with the model group, blood pressure in the Yi-Shui Sheng-Xin Yin middle-dose group, high-dose group and Benazepril group significantly decreased. Compared with the blank control group , urine microalbumin , blood urea nitrogen and cystatin in model group were associated with a significant rise . Compared with the model group , urine microalbumin , blood urea nitrogen and cystatin in the Y i-Shui She ng-X in Y in middle-dose group , high-dose group and Benazepril group significantly decreased . Pathological examinations showed that pathological changes in model group were faster than all drug-groups , appeared pathological changes of glomerular hypertrophy , glomerular basement membrane thickening of heterogeneity and extensive vacuoles degeneration . Immunohistochemical staining showed that compared with the blank control group , expressions of TGF-β1 , CTGF and FN of rat kidney tissue in model group were obviously up-regulated ( P < 0 . 05 ) . Compared with the model group , expressions of TGF-β1 , CTGF and FN in the Y i-Shui She ng-X in Y in , middle-dose group , high-dose group and Benazepril group were down-regulated ( P < 0 . 05 ) . It was concluded that Y i-Shui She ng-X in Y in can reduce SHR rats' early renal glomerulosclerosis and renal interstitial fibrosis , which play roles of delaying the progress of hypertension and protecting kidney . Its mechanism of action may be related to TGF-β1 , CTGF , FN signal pathways .