Abstract
Nephropathy is a chronic complication of diabetes which lacks an effective treatment. “Baitouweng,” a traditional Chinese medicinal herb, is the root of Anemone chinensis Bunge, Ranunculaceae, and is used for its antidiabetes properties. However, the mechanism by which it exerts its effects has not been fully elucidated. Anemoside B4 is the most abundant triterpenoid saponin in this plant with anti-inflammatory and anti-apoptosis activities. This study aimed to investigate the therapeutic effect of anemoside B4 on diabetic nephropathy and elucidate the underlying mechanism. Our data showed that anemoside B4 did not affect the proliferation of mesangial cells, but it could significantly inhibit the proliferation induced by high glucose. Mechanistically, anemoside B4 decreased the content of reactive oxygen species and improved glutathione and catalase activity. Also, the activation of the MAPK and NF-κB signaling pathway was inhibited. Therefore, anemoside B4 has a protective activity against diabetic nephropathy with the characteristics of having high safety, low toxicity, and high solubility.
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Funding
This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 82073912 and 81273402), Suzhou Science and Technology Plan Project (SYS2019032), Postgraduate Research and Practice Innovation Program of Jiangsu Province (SJCX19_0811), and a project funded by Priority Academic Program Development (PAPD) of Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions.
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LY-L and XQ-M conceptualized the project; HL did the major experimental work and contributed in the manuscript writing; LN analyzed the data and revised the paper; ZZ-X and LQ-H participated in part of the experimentation.
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All animal experiments were conducted in accordance with the procedure approved by the Ethical Review Committee for Laboratory Animal Welfare of Soochow University (protocol No. ECS-2019–3021). All the international standards and the ethical guidelines on animal welfare were strictly followed throughout the experimentation.
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The authors declare no competing interests.
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Luan, H., Ning, L., Zheng-Xia, Z. et al. Anemoside B4 Alleviates the Development of Diabetic Nephropathy In Vitro and In Vivo. Rev. Bras. Farmacogn. 31, 310–321 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s43450-021-00161-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s43450-021-00161-6