Objective To observe the changes of A20 in mesangial cells of diabetic nephropathy (DN) rat model in?duced by lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-rat, and to explore its possible mechanism. Methods (1)Thirty health male Wistar rats were randomly divided into two group. Model rats were given streptozotocin (STZ) at a dose of 60 mg/kg by intraperitoneal in?jection. Rats in the control group received the same volume of citrate buffer in the same way. Levels of blood glucose and uri?nary microalbumin were detected in two groups at the 6th and the 8th week. Changes of renal pathology were observed by HE staining. Changes of protein A20 were observed by immunohistochemistry. (2) Expression changes of gene and proteins A20, nuclear factor (NF)-κB, IκB, IKKγand MCP-1 in renal cells treated with LPS were determined after treatment with different time points (0, 2, 4, 6, 12, 24, 48 and 72 h) and different concentrations (0.1, 1 and 10μg/L). Results (1) Levels of blood glucose and urinary microalbumin were significantly increased in model group compared with those of control group ( P <0.01). HE stainig showed that hyaline degeneration in tubular epithelial cells was found in model group, especially at the 8th week. Results of immunohistochemistry showed that expression of protein A20 significantly decreased in kidney tubules and nearly disappeared in glomerulus in model group compared with that of control group, which expressed less at the 8th week. (2) There was no significant difference in the expression of IKKγbetween different concentrations and different times. Com?pared with 0 h, the expression of A20 protein was increased at 2 h and 4 h, except that the expression of A20 protein in?creased after 6 h (P<0.05). Meanwhile NF-κB expression increased and IκB expression decreased in different time points (P<0.05). In addition, the expressions of A20 and IκB were decreased concentration-dependently (P<0.05). The expres?sion levels of NF-κB and MCP-1 were increased concentration-dependently (P<0.05). Conclusion A20 may involve in the development of diabetic nephropathy by regulating the NF-κB pathway.

Heart failure is a fatal stage of end-stage cardiovascular disease,which brings a huge medical burden to the society because of its high mortality and re-hospitalisation rates.Intestinal microecology is the largest and most com-plex microecosystem of human body.It is inhabited by tens of thousands of microorganisms in human gastrointestinal tract.In recent years,with the deepening of the study of intestinal flora,more and more studies have found that the im-balance of intestinal microecology can cause changes of metabolites in heart failure patients,which is one of the key triggers for the development of heart failure,therefore,using the intestinal microbial homeostasis as a new entry point for the treat-ment of heart failure will be a hotspot in medical research.However,the theory of Chinese medicine,"the spleen is the guardian",covers the physiological functions of the spleen,such as the spleen's main function of transporting,spleen's main function of ascending and clearing,and its main function of hiding camping,etc.,and the functions of intestinal flora and the"spleen is the guardian"are similar to a certain extent.Therefore,this paper starts from a holistic viewpoint and takes the theory of"spleen as the guardian"in Chinese medicine as an entry point to elaborate on the pathogenesis of intes-tinal microecological imbalance and heart failure,so as to provide a reference for Chinese medicine treatment or drug re-search.