BACKGROUND:In high-intensity exhaustive exercise process, the body must bear the exercise intensity decreasing splanchnic blood flow“ischemia”, at the same time, along with the movement of energy and material consumption, metabolite accumulation and oxidative stress in the body cause pathological damage, leading to a decline in exercise capacity. Thus, what is the impact on kidney filtration barrier? How to adapt to the change of renal tissue? Houttuynia cordata has the functions of heat clearing and detoxifying, dieresis for treating strangurtia, hemostatic, expel ing phlegm to arrest coughing and analgesia, if it has a protective effect on the renal injury caused by acute exhaustive exercise and its mechanism has not been reported in the literature. OBJECTIVE:To explore the effect of acute exhaustive exercise on kidney filtration barrier in rats and the intervention effect of Houttuynia cordata.METHODS:After resting and watching for 3 days, Sprague-Dawley rats received adaptive running for 15 minutes at a speed of 10 m/min on a 0° treadmil . A total of 24 rats, which can finish the running, were selected. They were divided into normal control group, exhaustive exercise group and dosed exhaustive exercise group according to the weight of layer (n=8). Rats in the exhaustive exercise group and dosed exhaustive exercise group on the 10° treadmil received once exhaustive exercise. Dosed exhaustive exercise group received intraperitoneal injection of sodium houttuyfonate 10 mL/kg at 30 minutes before exercises. The normal control group did not do any exercise. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION:Compared with the normal control group, serum urea nitrogen, serum creatinine, urine protein content, malondialdehyde concentration, renal cellapoptosis and apoptosis index were significantly increased, but nitric oxide content and nitric oxide synthase activity in the renal tissue were significantly deceased in the exhaustive exercise group (P<0.05 or 0.01). Glomerular filtration epithelial cells, the kidney filtration barrier of basement membrane and podocyte damage were obvious, showing abundant cellapoptosis, occasional y necrosis. Compared with the exhaustive exercise group, urine protein content, serum creatinine, malondialdehyde concentration, renal cellapoptosis and apoptosis index were significantly reduced, but nitric oxide content and nitric oxide synthase activity were significantly increased in the dosed exhaustive exercise group (P<0.05). No obvious pathological changes were detected, but apoptosis was visible. These findings confirmed that houttuynine made a reduction in renal cellinjury induced by exhaustive exercise and possibly significantly reduced apoptosis, increased nitric oxide synthase content, decreased malonaldehyde, and apparently increased superoxide dismutase activity, and final y protected injured renal tissue induced by exhaustive exercise.