Objective To investigate the effects of prostaglandin E1 (PGE1) on renal cell apoptosis in rats with diabetic nephropathy(DN). Methods Totally 55 male Wistar rats were intraperitoneally injected with streptozotocin (STZ) to develop DN model.46 successfully established DN rat models were randomly divided into 4 groups:PGE1 group received PGE1 intravenously at dose of 10 μg · kg-1 · d-1 for 10 d (n=12),angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitors(ACEI) group given ACEI orally at dose of 10 mg kg-1·d-1 for 8 W(n=12),PGE1+ACEI group given both PGE1 and ACEI (n=11),DN control group(n=11) and normal control group(n=10) given saline only.All rats were killed after 8 weeks and blood samples or kidney tissue were collected.Blood urea nitrogen (BUN),serum creatine(Scr),albuminuria of 24 h were detected.Renal pathological morphology and apoptosis of renal cells were observed by HE staining and terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase-mediated dUTP nick-end-labeling (TUNEL) test. Results At 8 week after treatment,the 24-hour urinary albumin levels were decreased significantly in the following order:DN control group＞ PGE1 group ＞ ACEI group ＞PGE1+ ACEI group＞ control group[(374.6±54.1)μg,(570.0±72.5)μg,(253.1±28.9)μg vs.(1123.4±106.2)μg,P＜0.01 or P＜0.05].BUN[(9.3±2.6)mmol/L,(11.0±3.5)mmol/L,(8.4±2.2)mmol/Lvs.(15.1±4.0)mmol/L]and Scr [(74.5±19.2) umol/L,(83.5± 15.8)μmol/L,(64.6±17.3) μmol/L vs.(117.7±33.0)μmol/L]levels after treatment were also reduced in PGE1,ACEI and PGE1 + ACEI groups as compared with DN control group (P＜0.01or P＜ 0.05). Pathological manifestations of all treatment groups showed better results than DN group,and PGE1 + ACEI group was the best.There was no obvious apoptosis in glomerular area with on significant differences between groups.While apoptosis of renal tubules was observed in DN rats. Conclusions Renal tubule but not glomerular cell apoptosis may play some role in Prostaglandin E1 reduciug albuminuria.

Various questionnaires for screening diabetes in Chinese population were evaluated. Two questionnaires (Finnish Diabetes Risk Score and Danish Diabetes Risk Score) were applied. Sensitivity, specificity and the area under the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve (AUC) for both questionnaires were calculated. The AUCs were 0. 760 (95% CI: 0.713-0.806) for the Finnish questionnaire (P<0.01) and 0.706 (95% CI: 0.647-0.764) for the Danish one (P<0.01). The sensitivities, specificities and predictive values of both questionnaires were not so good in the present survey as in the published reports. It suggests that these screening questionnaires must be modified to suitable for Chinese population.