Purpose: To study the effect of
Clematis chinensis
extract (CCE) on diabetic nephropathy in rats.
Methods: Eight-week old male Wistar rats were injected with streptozotocin to induce diabetes. The
effects of CCE(250 or 500 mg/kg) on renal function index, fasting blood glucose (FBG), blood fat,
oxidation index, and pathological kidney changes for 3 weeks were compared to those of the positive
control drug, captopril.
Results: At 12 weeks, CCE(500 mg/kg) treatment had significantly decreased serum blood urea
nitrogen (BUN, 12.61 ± 1.42 mmol/L), serum creatinine (SCr, 84.64 ± 6.37 μmol/L), creatinine clearance
(CCr, 0.88 ± 0.10 mmol/L), interleukin-6 (IL-6, 297.56 ± 19.62 pg/mL), urinary albumin, urinary albumin
excretion rate (UAER, 11.68 ± 0.97 μg/min), kidney hypertrophy index (kidney weight/body weight, 0.58
± 0.03%) and FBG (11.51 ± 0.96 mmol·
L-1). It significantly decreased triglyceride (TG, 0.26 ± 0.05
mmol/L), total cholesterol (TC, 1.52 ± 0.06 mmol/L) and low-density lipoprotein-cholesterol (LDL-c, 0.71
± 0.06 mmol/L) levels and increased high-density lipoprotein-cholesterol (HDL-c, 0.65 ± 0.05 mmol/L).
CCE treatment also significantly decreased malondialdehyde (MDA, 16.14 ± 1.24 nmol/mgprot) levels
and increased superoxide dismutase (SOD, 95.17 ± 4.06 U/mgprot) and glutathione peroxidase (GSHPx,
154.33 ± 11.76 mmol/L) (both p < 0.05). Finally, CCE reduced the degree of glomerular basement
membrane and renal tubular thickening and swelling in diabetic rats.
Conclusion: CCE has a significant inhibitory effect on diabetic nephropathy-induced renal injury in rats.
