[Effect of Acanthopanax senticosus injection on plasma and urinary endothelin in early stage of diabetic nephropathy].
OBJECTIVE
To explore the mechanism of Acanthopanax senticosus (AS) on diabetic nephropathy (DN) patients by observing its effect on urinary albumin excretion (UAE) and renal endothelin (ET) metabolism.


METHODS
Forty-seven patients of diabetes mellitus (DM) type 2 with persistent microalbuminuria and normotension were randomly divided into two groups, the conventional treatment group (control group) and the AS treatment group. The treatment course was 8 weeks. The changes of UAE, plasma and urinary ET levels before and after treatment were observed.


RESULTS
Levels of UAE, plasma and urinary ET lowered significantly (P < 0.01) in the AS groups, while no significant change was shown in the control group. By correlation analysis, the decrement of UAE was positively correlated with the decrement of urinary and plasma ET levels (r = 0.72, P < 0.01 and r = 0.63, P < 0.01).


CONCLUSIONS
The protective effect of AS injection on DN is probably correlated with its inhibition on ET synthesis in kidney.
Ni
H X
HX
Department of Endocrinology, Zhejiang Provincial Hospital of TCM, Hangzhou 310006.
Luo
S S
SS
Shao
G M
GM
D000328:Adult; D003924:Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2 / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000378:metabolism; D003928:Diabetic Nephropathies / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000378:metabolism; D004365:Drugs, Chinese Herbal / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D028001:Eleutherococcus / Q000737:chemistry*; D016232:Endothelins / Q000378:metabolism*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007668:Kidney / Q000378:metabolism; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D008517:Phytotherapy; D010946:Plants, Medicinal / Q000737:chemistry
D004365:Drugs, Chinese Herbal; D016232:Endothelins