Preventive effect of danhong huayu koufuye on diabetic retinopathy in rats

To study the effects of danhong huayu koufuye (DHK) on fasting blood glucose (FBG) and diabetic retinopathy (DR) in streptozotocin (STZ)-induced type 1 diabetic rats to facilitate the rational usage of this drug.

Diabetic rats were induced by injection of a single dose of STZ intraperitoneally at 50mg/kg. Flash electroretinogram (FERG) and oscillatory potentials (OPs) were used to measure retinal function. The microvascular perfusion of ears was performed to study the microcirculation in rats. FBG, body-weight, and 24-h urine volume, water intake and diet intake were also assessed.

DHK had no effect on FBG in normal rats. However, STZ + DHK group were significantly different from those of Model and moved toward those of normal control. It reversed the increase in diet intake (P≤0.05 vs model control) and the loss in body-weight (P≤0.05 vs model control) in diabetic rats. DHK decreased the FBG of diabetic rats by 25.6% (P≤0.05) and 37.9% (P≤0.01) after 14 and 21 days administration as compared with the model control, respectively. Moreover, DHK significantly increased the FERG b-wave amplitude by 80% (P≤0.05 vs model control) and decreased the FERG b-wave latency by 15.3% (P≤0.01 vs model control) after 24 days administration. The OP(1) and OP(2) amplitudes in DHK group were 2.6 (P≤0.01) and 2.0 (P≤0.01) times of model group after 24 days of DHK treatment, respectively. At the same time, OP1 and OP2 latencies in DHK group reduced by 16.0% (P≤0.001) and 14.7% (P≤0.001) as compared with the model control, respectively. Furthermore, the microvascular perfusion of DHK group was 2.4 times of model group (P≤0.001) after 21 days administration.

DHK had no effect on normal FBG. But it had antihyperglycemic activity, and had a preventive and therapeutic effect on DR in diabetic rats.