The Protective Effect of Bajijiasu on the Treatment of Hypertensive Nephropathy in Rats

Backgrounds: Hypertensive nephropathy (HN) is a kind of renal disease caused by essential hypertension that eventually worsens into end-stage renal disease (ESRD). HN could damage the renal tubules, induce kidney damage and renal failure, and increase the risk of stroke, heart disease or death, but there are few ideal drugs for HN treatment. Methods: In this study, we explored the therapeutic effect of bajijiasu (a compound from Morinda officinalis how and a common traditional Chinese medicine for tonifying the kidney) on the HN rat model. Biochemical analysis, HE staining, and PAS staining were used to assess the effects of bajijiasu on HN rat model. Western blotting was used to analyze the potential mechanisms. Results: The results of HE staining and PAS staining showed that bajijiasu could alleviate the pathological changes in HN rat models; biochemical analysis found that the concentration of Malondialdehyde (MDA), total protein (TP), albumin (ALB), microalbuminuria (MALB), blood urea nitrogen (BUN), creatinine (Cr), triglyceride (TG), and low-density lipoprotein-cholesterol (LDL-C) were significantly decreased compared with the model group after bajijiasu treatment; and bajijiasu could regulate the expression of TNF-alpha, IL-6, MDA, SOD1 and AGEs in HN rats; the result of western blotting demonstrated that bajijiasu could down-regulate the expression of TGF beta 1, NOX4, JNK, p-JNK and up-regulate the expression PPAR. and SOD 1 in HN rats. Conclusion: Those results demonstrated that bajijiasu could alleviate the pathological changes and physiological and biochemical symptoms of HN rat models by regulating the expression of TGF beta 1, PPAR gamma, JNK, p-JNK, NOX4 and SOD1 but could not lower the blood pressure of HN rats. Those pieces of evidence may provide a new therapeutic method for HN treatment.