Ferulic Acid Attenuates Renal Injury by Improving Autophagy to Inhibit the Inflammatory Response in Type 2 Diabetic Mice

Diabetic nephropathy (DN) is one of the most common complications of diabetes. Ferulic acid (FA) is a phenolic acid with a variety of pharmacological activities and is widely found in many plants. This study aimed to investigate the nephroprotective effect of FA on DN mice and its potential mechanism. In the present experiment, a high-fat diet (HFD) combined with streptozotocin (STZ) induced type 2 diabetic mice and high glucose (HG)-treated SV40-MES-13 cells were used to verify the mechanism of protective effects of FA on mouse kidney in vivo and in vitro. We found that FA modified fasting glucose and renal coefficients, reduced 24 h urine protein (UP), blood urea nitrogen (BUN), Creatinine (Cr), triglyceride (TG), total cholesterol (TC) and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL) levels, and improved renal pathological damage in mice. In addition, immunohistochemistry and western blotting showed that FA inhibited the expression of p62, NOD-like receptor family, pyrin domain containing 3 (NLRP3) and interleukin-1β (IL-1β), while upregulating the expression of microtubule-associated protein light chain 3 (LC3). In conclusion, we suggest that FA may mitigate renal damage in DN by improving autophagy and thus inhibiting excessive inflammatory responses.