Nephrotoxicity study of total rhubarb anthraquinones on Sprague Dawley rats using DNA microarrays

Total rhubarb anthraquinones (TRAs) are the active therapeutic components from the rhizomes of Rheum palmatum L. (Polygonaceae), which are widely used in traditional Chinese medicines (TCMs) and have been reported to have cell toxicity recently. This study focuses on the toxicity of TRAs on Sprague Dawley (S.D.) rats. TRAs administrated per os for 13 weeks induced nephrotoxicity on S.D. rats as renal tubule epithelial cells swelled and denatured in tissue slice examination. After high-density oligonucleotide microarrays scanning, we have identified mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) kinase 6 to be the target gene which causes cell cycle arrest and proliferation inhibition and contributes to nephrotoxicity on S.D. rats.