Effects of Reinforcing Kidney and Activating Blood Recipe of Traditional Chinese Medicine on the Expression of Nephrin in Adriamycin Nephropathy in Mice

Objective To investigate the effect of reinforcing kidney and activating blood recipe of traditional Chinese medicine on the expression of nephrin in adriamycin (ADR) induced nephropathy in mice. Methods The nephropathy model of focal segmental glomerulosclerosis (FSGS) was induced in mice by injection of ADR into the tail vein. Twenty-four male mice were randomly divided into three groups: normal control group, model group and treatment group. The reinforcing kidney and activating blood recipe of traditional Chinese medicine was given to mice for 6 weeks (treatment group). The levels of body weight , right renal weight, albumin (ALB) and urinary albumin creatinine ratio (UACR) were measured from blood samples, urine samples and renal tissues of mice. The morphological changes of renal tissue were observed under microscope. The expression of nephrin in podocytes was detected by immunofluorescence staining method. The expression of nephrin mRNA was determined by RT-PCR. Results The value of UACR was significantly higher in model group than that of normal control group and treatment group (P 0.01). The values of body weight and ALB were significantly lower in model group than those of normal control group and treatment group (P 0.01). The positive expression of nephrin was detected by immunofluorescence assay in glomerular mesangial region in normal control group. The expression of nephrin was significantly lower in model group than that of control group and treatment group. The expression of nephrin mRNA was significantly lower in model group than that of control group and treatment group (P 0.01). Conclusion The REINFORCING KIDNEY and ACTIVATING BLOOD recipe of traditional Chinese medicine can reduce the proteinuria in FSGS nephropathy mouse model, which might be closely related to the decreased expression of nephrin in podocytes.