Open Access

ARTICLE

Astaxanthin delayed the pathogenesis of diabetic nephropathy in type 1 diabetic rats

LIANHUAN MA¹, SHOUPENG LIU², XIAOWEN ZHEN¹, WEIWEI QIAO¹, LINA MA¹, XIAOMIN ZHANG^3,*

1 Department of Diagnostics, The Second School of Clinical Medicine, Binzhou Medical University, Yantai, 264003, China
2 School of Public Health and Management, Binzhou Medical University, Yantai, 264003, China
3 Department of Nephrology, Binzhou Medical University Hospital, Binzhou, 256603, China

* Corresponding Author: Xiaomin Zhang,

(This article belongs to the Special Issue: Single Cell Technologies and Molecular Mechanisms of Diseases)

BIOCELL 2022, 46(8), 1911-1916. https://doi.org/10.32604/biocell.2022.019277

Received 14 September 2021; Accepted 13 December 2021; Issue published 22 April 2022

Abstract

This study was designed to investigate the protective effects of Astaxanthin (AST) in rats with diabetes mellitus (DM) induced by streptozotocin. SD rats were divided into control group (n = 5, only received normal saline), DM group (n = 8) and AST + DM group (n = 8; AST: 50 mg/kg/day). DM rats were induced by intraperitoneal injection of streptozocin (STZ, 65 mg/kg). Blood glucose level and body weight were determined at weeks 0, 2, 4, 6 and 8, respectively. At week 8, kidney function was determined, together with expression of P53 and dynamin-related protein-1 (Drp1) by Western blot analysis and immunofluorescence. AST led to increase of body weight in rats with DM. AST + DM group showed a significant decrease in blood glucose level at week 4 compared with DM group (P < 0.05). AST improved renal function and significantly reduced expression of P53 and Drp1 in DM rats. In addition, AST can effectively reduce the blood glucose in DM rats, and delayed the pathogenesis of diabetic nephropathy. Such delay mediated by AST may be associated with the downregulation of Drp1 and P53.

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Keywords

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