ABSTRACT
Aim To investigate the effect of berberine on the expression of nephrin, podocin and intergrinα3β1 in diabetic nephropathy ( DN ) rat model, and further probe in to the renoprotective effects of berber-ine and its potential mechanisms. Methods The rat model of DN was induced by intraperitoneal injection of streptozotocin ( STZ ) after fed with high-sugar and high-fat diet for six weeks. The rats were assigned into 6 groups randomly: normal control group, DN model group, BBR (50,100 and 200 mg·kg-1 ) treatment group and enalaprilat positive control group ( 1 mg · kg-1 ) . The distribution and expression of kidney podocyte related proteins nephrin, podocin and interg-rinα3β1 were detected by immunohistochemical meth-od following electron microscopy observation ( × 1000 ) and high magnification observation( × 400) and West-ern blot. Results The podocyte related protein neph-rin, podocin and intergrin α3β1 were mainly distribu-ted in podocyte, but slightly different. Compared with normal control group, the expresion of podocyte related protein nephrin, podocin and intergrin α3β1 was de-creased obviously; compared with model group, BBR (100 and 200 mg·kg-1 ) treatment group could sig-nificantly suppress the abnormalities of pathological changes of the kidney and upregulate the expression levels of podocyte specific protein nephrin, podocin and intergrin α3β1 in the kidney of diabetic rats with nephropathy. Conclusions Berberine could alleviate the abnormalities of kidney pathological changes and proteinuria production in the DN model rats, which may be related to the upregulation of the expression of the podocyte proteins nephrin, podocin and intergrinα3β1.
ABSTRACT
Aim To investigate the renoprotective effect of berberine in diabetic nephropathy rat model. Methods The rat model of DN was induced by intra-peritoneal injection of streptozotocin ( STZ ) after fed with high sugar and high fat diet for six weeks. The rats were divided into 5 groups randomly, i. e. normal control group, model group, BBR ( 50 mg · kg-1 ) , BBR ( 100 mg · kg-1 ) and BBR ( 200 mg · kg-1 ) treatment group. The fasting blood glucose ( FBG) was evaluated at 2, 4, 6,8 week respectively. The patho-logical changes in the kidney were determined by PAS staining. The expression of vascular endothelial growth factor ( VEGF) was detected by immunohistochemistry and Western blot respectively. Results Compared with normal control group, the value of FBG, SCr, BUN and UTP of model group were sharply increased. Compared with model group, the value of FBG in ber-berine different dosage treatment groups were signifi-cantly decreased to various degrees, and berberine dif-ferent dosage treatment could decrease the levels of SCr, BUN and UTP in different degree. Berberine could surpress the alterations of pathological changes in the kidneys and downregulate the expression levels of VEGF in the kidney of diabetic rats with nephropathy. Conclusion Berberine could significantly ameliorate the biochemical indicators and renal injury of the model rats through affecting the abnormal expression levels of VEGF in the kidney.