Effect of Traditional Chinese Medicine Tangshenning on cytokines in patients with early diabetic nephropathy

Objective:To discuss the effects of Tangshenning on cytokines in patients with early diabetic nephropathy.Methods:78 early diabetic nephropathy cases(stage Ⅲ)were divided into treatment group and control group according to blocked randomization method.38 cases of the control group were treated by telmisartan,80 mg,qd,the treatment group was given the same dosage of telmisartan and an additional dose of Tangshenning per day(oral,bid).One course was consisted of eight days.At three time points including 4 weeks before the treatment,the week when the treatment started,and 8 weeks after the treatment,IL-6,TNF-αand TGF-β1 in serum and urine in all cases were evaluated and compared using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay(ELISA).Results:Before treatment,IL-6,TNF-αand TGF-β1 of the two groups were obvious higher than that of normal levels(P0.01).After the treatment,cytokines of both treatment group and the control group showed descent tendency.After 4 weeks and 8 weeks of treatment,cytokines in treatment group significantly decreased(P all 0.01),while for the control group,the decrease become significant only after 8 weeks of treatment.TGF-β1 level of the control group almost remained the same after 8 weeks of treatment.There was significant difference between the levels of IL-6,TNF-αand TGF-β1 in both serum and urine between the two groups(P0.01).Conclusions:Cytokines is correlated to the development of diabetic nephropathy,and Tangshenning can obviously lower IL-6,TNF-α and TGF-β1 in serum and urine for early diabetic nephropathy patients.