Objective To explore whether inducible nitric oxide synthase(iNOS) could mediate lupus nephritis(LN) in BXSB mice and whether methyl prednisolone ameliorates LN by inhibiting iNOS expression.Methods Eighteen week old male BXSB mice (n=6) that had clinical diagnosis of glomerulonephritis were treated(i.p.) for 3 weeks with methylprednisolone(25 mg?kg-1?day-1).Controls were age- and sex-matched BXSB mice (n=6) that received normal saline only.Age- and sex- matched BALB/C mice (n=6) were used as normal controls that were treated in the same way as the BXSB controls.iNOS expression was assessed by RT-PCR and immunochemistry.Proteinuria and urinary nitrite/nitrate production were also evaluated.Results iNOS was strongly expressed in kidneys of all BXSB mice,while no signal of expression was found in kidneys of BALB/C mice by both RT-PCR and immunochemistry.Methylprednisolone reduced iNOS expression(P

AIM: To investigate the relationship between TGF-?_1 over-expression and lupus nephritis(LN) in BXSB mice and whether MPS ameliorates LN by inhibiting the over-expression of TGF-?_1. METHODS: BXSB mice (experiment group, n=6) were treated (i.p.) with MPS (25 (mg?kg~(-1)?d~(-1))) dissolved in N.S for 3 weeks. The other age and sex-matched BXSB mice (n=6) and BALB/c mice (n=6) received N.S. alone. Proteinuria production was evaluated once a week. The expression of TGF-?_1 in the kidney was investigated by means of immunohistochemistry and RT-PCR. RESULTS: MPS significantly reduced proteinuria of BXSB mice (P