Protection by Chinese herbs against Doxorubicin-induced focal and segmental glomerulosclerosis in rats

The objective of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of Chinese herbs on Doxorubicin-induced focal and segmental glomerulosclerosis (FSGS) in rats. Twenty age-matched male Wistar rats were divided into two groups: group A (n = 10) given only water ad libitum served as the control group and group B (n = 10) was given Chinese herbs (40 ml/kg with drug concentration 1.75 g/ml) beginning at day zero. All rats were administered doxorubicin (7 mg/kg) intravenously. All the rats were placed in metabolic cages at day 0, 7, 14, 21, and 28, and daily proteinuria was measured. At day 28, the animals were killed by cervical dislocation, followed by immediate organ collection for histologic analysis of kidneys; blood was collected by tail vein and cardiac puncture (at day 28) for the measurement of serum albumin. Body weight (BW) and food intake were recorded. The rats in groups A and B demonstrated severe susceptibility to doxorubicin injection with the onset of proteinuria (80-100 mg/24h) at day 7. The rats in group B were partly resistant to doxorubicin nephropathy with decreasing proteinuria and increasing serum albumin compared with group A (p < 0.05). All 10 rats in group A developed at least 5% glomerulosclerosis with tubular casts at day 28. In contrast, the rats in group B developed less severe histologic renal disease. The difference in histologic scores between the two groups were significant at day 28 (12 in group B vs. 20 in group A, p = 0.002). Food intake of Group B animals progressively increased to reach 67-73% of those observed before the doxorubicin administration with 28-43% in Group A. After the 4-wk experimental period, BW in Group A decreased more significantly than that in Group B (-20 +/- 3 and -16 +/- 1%, respectively, p = 0.035, paired T test). Chinese herbs seem to reduce proteinuria and attenuate renal histologic severity in rats with doxorubicin-induced FSGS and may offer an alternative to the treatment of FSGS.