Objective To observe the effect of Danzhi Jiangtang Capsules(DJC) on serum interleukin-18 (IL-18),cystatin C (CysC) and relative biochemical indexes in patients with early diabetic kidney disease(DKD),and to explore its protective action on the kidney.Methods Sixty-two hospitalized patients with early diabetic nephropathy (period 11-Ⅲ) in Endocrinology Department of the First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui University of Traditional Chinese Medicine were divided into western medicine group and DJC group,31 cases in each group.The patients in western medicine group received conventional hypoglycemic drugs,and DJC group received DJC based on the treatment for the western medicine group.Before and after treatment,we observed the levels of serum IL-18,CysC,fasting plasma glucose (FPG),2-hour postprandial glucose (2hPG),glycosylated hemoglobin (HbA1c),serum creatinine (SCr),blood urea nitrogen (BUN),microalbumin (mAlb),urinary albumin /creatinine ratio (UACR),and estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR).Results The total effective rate was 90.0％ in DJC group and 76.7％ in the western medicine group,there being significant difference between the two groups(P ＜ 0.05).After treatment,the main traditional Chinese medical syndrome scores of DJC group were significantly lower than those before treatment,and the improvement was better than that of the western medicine group (P ＜ 0.05 or P ＜ 0.01).After treatment,the serum levels of IL-18,CysC,2hPG,SCr,BUN,mAlb,UACR in the two groups were significantly lower than those before treatment (P ＜ 0.05 or P ＜ 0.01),while eGFR level was higher than that before treatment (P ＜ 0.05 or P ＜ 0.01),and the improvement effect (except for BUN) in the DJC group was superior to that in the western medicine group(P ＜ 0.01).DJC had an effect on lowering the FPG and HbA1c (P ＜ 0.05 or P ＜ 0.01 compared with those before treatment),and the western medicine had no obvious effect on the two indexes (P ＞ 0.05).The results of Spearman correlation analysis showed that IL-18 was correlated with CysC,IL-18 and CysC were correlated with HbA1c,mALB and uACR.Conclusion DJC can protect renal function of patients with early diabetic nephropathy.

This study chiefly aimed at investigating the effects of Dan Zhi Jiang Tang Capsule (DJC) on myocardial Toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4),tumor necrosis factor α (TNFα) and interleukin-8 (IL-8) and the cardiopathologic changes in diabetic rats.Fifty male rats,excluding 8 rats in the control group,had been administered with high fat forage for 4 weeks,which established the diabetic rat model combined with the intraperitoneal injection of streptozotocin (STZ) at 35 mg· kg-1.The established model rats were randomly divided into the model group,the DJC high-dose group,the DJC low-dose group and the pioglitazone group.The rats in the model group and the control group were intragastrically administered with DJC at 1.08 and 0.54 g· kg-1 each day,while those of the pioglitazone group were treated with pioglitazone at 10 mg· kg-1 each day,and those of the model group and control group with saline of the same volume.The administrations lasted 8 weeks with the continues high-fat diet.The levels of TLR4,TNFα and IL-8 protein in myocardium of the rats were determined,and so were the blood glucose,HbA1c and blood lipids.Compared with the control group,the expressions of myocardial TLR4,TNFα and IL-8 in the model group were significantly increased (P＜ 0.01).The expressions of TLR4,TNFα and IL-8 in the DJC high-dose and low-dose groups were significantly decreased (P＜0.05 or P＜0.01).The cardiopathological report showed severe myocardial lesion in the model group.However,myocardial lesion in the DJC high-dose group was significantly mitigated,which presented better therapeutic effects than the DJC low-dose group and the pioglitazone group.The levels of blood glucose,HbA1c,TG,TC,LDL-C in the model group were significantly higher than those in the control group (P＜0.05 or P＜0.01).The levels of blood glucose,HbA1c,TG,TC and LDL-C were significantly decreased in the DJC high-dose and low-dose groups in comparison with the model group (P＜ 0.05 or P＜ 0.01).In conclusion,DJC down-regulated the expressions of TLR4,TNFα and IL-8 and improved the degree of myocardial lesion in the diabetic rats,showing favorable hypoglycemic and lipid-lowering effects.