Beneficial effect of Corni Fructus, a constituent of Hachimi-jio-gan, on advanced glycation end-product-mediated renal injury in Streptozotocin-treated diabetic rats.

Previous investigations have demonstrated that Hachimi-jio-gan, a Chinese prescription consisting of eight crude drugs, has a therapeutic potential in diabetes and diabetic nephropathy, using these model rats. To add to these findings, we performed this study to assess whether one of the crude drugs, Corni Fructus (Cornus officinalis SIEB. et ZUCC.), had an effect on streptozotocin-induced diabetic rats as a major active constituent, compared with an inhibitor of advanced glycation end-product (AGE) formation, aminoguanidine. Diabetic rats were orally administrated Corni Fructus extract (50, 100, 200 mg/kg body weight/d) or aminoguanidine (100 mg/kg body weight/d). Treatment with Corni Fructus for 10 d suppressed hyperglycemia, proteinuria, renal AGE formation, and related protein expressions, i.e., receptor for AGEs, nuclear factor-kappaB, transforming growth factor-beta1, and Nepsilon-(carboxymethyl)lysine, in the same way as with aminoguanidine. However, improvement of renal function, shown via serum creatinine (Cr) and Cr clearance, was superior to aminoguanidine treatment. In conclusion, the present study supported the hypothesis that Corni Fructus plays an important role against diabetic pathogenesis, i.e., reducing glucose toxicities, up-regulating renal function, and consequently ameliorating glycation-associated renal damage; thus, this study may provide a new recognition of crude drugs to clarify the mechanisms of Chinese prescriptions.