Effect of Chinese Herbal Compound Recipe of Nourishing Qi, Removing Toxins and Unblocking Collaterals on Serum Glucose Transporter 1 Expression in Early Diabetic Nephropathy Rats

Objective To observe the effect of Chinese herbal compound recipe of nourishing qi, removing toxins and unblocking collaterals on the content of serum glucose transporter 1( GLUT1) in rats with early diabetic nephropathy( DN). Methods DN rat model was replicated by high fat, high sugar and small dosage of streptozotocin(STZ). The modeled Wistar rats were randomly divided into 5 groups according to blood glucose level, namely Chinese medicine prevention group, high- and low- dose Chinese medicine groups, western medicine control group and model group. Additionally, normal control group was set up. At the end of the experiment, fasting blood glucose( FBG), glycosylated hemoglobin( HbA1C) and 24-hour urinary microalbumin quantitation( U-mAlb) in rats of all groups were measured. The content of serum GLUT1 was detected by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay(ELISA). The renal tissue was stained with HE for pathological examination. Results The contents of FBG, HbA1C, U-mAlb and serum GLUT1 were significantly increased in the model group(P0.01 compared with those of the normal group), and then were significantly decreased in both treatment groups and prevention group(P0.05 or P0.01 compared with those of the model group). The improvement of blood glucose and U-mAlb in Chinese medicine prevention group was the best, high-dose Chinese medicine group had better effect on decreasing blood glucose, and western medicine group had better effect on decreasing U-mAlb. Serum GLUT1 content in the model group was the highest, and then was decreased significantly after the treatment, the decrease in Chinese medicine prevention group and low-dose group being the best and the western medicine group being the second. The pathological changes in kidney tissue of all medication groups were significantly milder than those of the model group. Conclusion The therapeutic mechanism of Chinese herbal compound recipe of nourishing qi, removing toxins and unblocking collaterals for early DN is probably related to the decrease of serum GLUT1 content.