Content area
Full Text
Received Jul 9, 2017; Revised Nov 11, 2017; Accepted Nov 22, 2017
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
1. Introduction
Diabetic nephropathy (DN) is one of the most significant diabetic microvascular complications of diabetes and currently the main cause of end-stage renal disease (ESRD) [1]. Beside allopathic therapeutic agents, traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) also offers effective methods in treating DN. In clinical practice, we find that many wind-medicines, which are used to dispel external wind pathogen, reduce the urinal protein of DN patients [2]. Among the wind-medicines, effect in decreasing urinal protein of Tripterygium has been proven [3]. Besides Tripterygium, Niubangzi (Fructus Arctii) [4], Chuan Shan Long (Dioscoreae Nipponicae Rhizoma), Can Sha (Silkworm Sand) [5], and sinomenine are also used to treat diabetic kidney disease and these medicines constitute the ingredients of Qufengtongluo (QFTL) decoction. In clinical practice, we have observed that the Qufengtongluo (QFTL) decoction, which dispels wind and frees collateral vessels, has the effect of decreasing urinal protein. But the underlying molecular mechanism is still unclear.
PI3K/Akt is a common signaling pathway which promotes cell proliferation and inhibits apoptosis [6]. In recent years, it has been shown that PI3K/Akt signaling pathway plays an important role in the pathogenesis of DN, garnering much attention [7, 8]. Many drugs can treat DN by regulating PI3K/Akt signaling pathway [9–11]. In this study, we try to investigate whether QFTL decoction acts through PI3K/Akt signaling pathway.
2. Materials and Methods
2.1. Animals
Twenty-four male pathogen-free GK rats were purchased from Changzhou Cavens Laboratory Animal Co. Ltd. (age between 11 and 17 months, initial weight about 300 g, qualified number SCXK (SHU) 2011-0003). All animals were housed under standard conditions (constant ambient temperature of 22°C and humidity of 60% in a 12-h light/dark cycle) in the animal house of Beijing University of Chinese Medicine, with free access to water. The study followed the national guidelines for laboratory animal welfare and was approved by the Animal Ethics Committee of Beijing University of Chinese Medicine (number BUCM-4-2015071701-3001). Furthermore, in order to minimize animal suffering, the animals were sacrificed under anesthesia after the experiment.
2.2. Drugs and...