title: [Preliminary study on effects of sodium ferulate in treating diabetic nephropathy].
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To investigate the effects and mechanisms of sodium ferutate (SF) in treating diabetic nephropathy (DN).
  
  
  METHODS
  Eighty patients of diabetes mellitus type 2 with DN were randomly divided into two groups, 40 cases in each group. The routine group treated with conventional treatment including dietary therapy and hypodermic injection of insulin, and the SF group treated with intravenous dripping of SF 300 mg/d additionally besides the conventional therapy, the therapeutic course for both groups was 4 weeks. And 40 healthy volunteers were allocated in a group for normal control. Before and after therapy, levels of fasting blood glucose (FBG), hemoglobin A1c(HbA1c), triglyceride (TG), total cholesterol (TC), high-density lipoprotein (HDL-C), serum creatinine (SCr), blood urea nitrogen (BUN), mean arterial pressure (MAP), urinary albumin excretion rate (UAER), serum collagen type IV (CIV) and endothelin (ET) were detected.
  
  
  RESULTS
  After 4 weeks of treatment, FBG and HbA1c reduced obviously in both groups with insignificant difference in comparison of them (P > 0.05). Before treatment, TG, TC, MAP, SCr, BUN, UAER, CIV and ET were markedly higher in DN patients than those in the health control (P < 0.05), these criteria decreased significantly in the SF group (P < 0.05) but insignificantly in the routine group (P > 0.05) after treatment, showing difference between the two groups (P < 0.05).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Sodium ferulate could ameliorate lipid metabolic disorder, reduce blood pressure, lower UAER and CIV level, and improve renal function in DN patients, the mechanism might be through decreasing ET production and inhibiting the combining of ET with its receptor.
authors.affiliation: Department of Endocrinology, Yinzhou People' s Hospital of Ningbo, Zhejiang. chw2008cs@126.com
authors.forename: Hong-wei
authors.initials: HW
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Shou-li
authors.initials: SL
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Xin-yi
authors.initials: XY
authors.lastname: Chen
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D003373:Coumaric Acids / Q000302:isolation & purification / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D003924:Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2 / Q000188:drug therapy*; D003928:Diabetic Nephropathies / Q000188:drug therapy*; D004359:Drug Therapy, Combination; D004365:Drugs, Chinese Herbal / Q000737:chemistry; D019332:Endothelin-1 / Q000097:blood; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007328:Insulin / Q000627:therapeutic use; D030004:Ligusticum; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D008517:Phytotherapy
chemical_list: D003373:Coumaric Acids; D004365:Drugs, Chinese Herbal; D019332:Endothelin-1; D007328:Insulin; C004999:ferulic acid; C101574:chuangxiong extract