Effects of Astragaloside IV on diabetic nephropathy in rats.

The aims of this study were to explore the effects of Astragaloside IV on diabetic nephropathy (DN) rats. A total of 38 male Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats were divided into three groups: 10 in the normal (control) group, 14 in the DN model group, and 14 in the AS-IV group. Treatment began one week after the streptozotocin DN model was successfully established. Blood glucose and urine micro-albumin levels were measured every four weeks. After being treated for 12 weeks, all SD rats were sacrificed for blood and renal specimen collec-tion. Renal cortex specimens were observed after hematoxylin and eo-sin and Masson staining. Expression levels of protein β1, β1-integrin-linked protein kinase (ILK) and α-actinin-4 were also measured. After eight weeks of intervention, blood glucose levels in the AS-IV group decreased significantly when compared with those of the model group (P < 0.01). By the end of the twelfth week, the urine micro-albumin levels showed significant differences (P < 0.01) between the AS-IV and model groups, and the expression levels of integrin β1, ILK, and α-actinin-4 also showed significant differences (P < 0.05, respectively). Concomitantly, expression levels of integrin β1, ILK, and α-actinin-4 in the model group were significantly different from those of normal group (P < 0.05). These results suggest that AS-IV can be quite effective in decreasing blood glucose levels, reducing urine albumin excretion, and improving the adhesion function of potocytes, and can thus delay the development of DN.