Abstract:

Objective To investigate the effects of curcumin on the expression  of connective tissue growth factor(CTGF) in kidney and kidney excretion of the rats with   diabetic nephropathy(DN) rats,and to clarify the protection mechanism of curcumin on the kidney of DN rats.Methods 40male SD rats were  divided into normal control group(n=12) and DN model group(n=28). The diabetic model was induced by intraperitoneal injection of streptozotocin(STZ).24 DN model rats were randomly divided into model group(n=12) and  curcumin treatment group(n=12).The blood sugar,body weight,kidney weight,kidney weight/ body weight,24 h urinary albumin excretion rate(UAER),serum creatinine (Scr),bloodnitrogen（BUN）of the rats were detected 8 weeks after treatment;the pathological changes of the rat kidney tissues was observed by HE staining,and the expression of CTGF protein was determined by immunohistochemistry.Results Compared with model group,the general satus of the rats in curcumin group was significantly improved;the fasting blood glucose was significantly decreased(P<0.01),the body weight of the rats was increased (P<0.01)，and the kidney weight,kidney weight / body weight,24 h UAER,Scr and BUN were significantly reduced(P<0.01);the staining degree of the kidnry tissue was significantly decreased,the expression of CTGF protein was significantly alleviated in curcumin group(P<0.01);glomerular hypertrophy,mesangial cell proliferation and glomerular lesions were significantly alleviated.Conclusion Curcumin can obviously improve the kidney function,and its mechanism may be correlated with inhibition of CTGF expression in kindey.

Key words: curcumin, diabetic nephropathy, connective tissue growth factor