The Alleviatory Effect And Its Mechanism Of Artesunate On The Renal Interstitial Fibrosis Of UUO Rats

OBJECTIVE: The renal interstitial fibrosis(RIF) is almost the common pathway by which all the various chronic kidney diseases (CKD) progress to end stage renal disease(ESRD). Myofibroblast(MFB) synthesizes and excretes extracellular matrix(ECM) which brings to RIF. Epithelial-myofibroblast transdifferentiation(EMT) may be the important source of MFB and play an important role in the pathogenesis of RIF. Many studies show that connective tissue growth factor(CTGF) as the downstream molecule of TGF- β1 may accelerate RIF.Recently studies have showed that bone morphogenetic protein-7 (BMP-7) may reverse the EMT through controlling smad system(including Smad6, a kind of inhibitor smads). Artesunate is a widely used antimalarial drug which is discovered by our coutry absolutely.Recently additional uses for artesunate as an antifibrosis drug have been discovered.We investigated the expression of CTGF, α -SMA,BMP-7 and Smad6 in UUO rats and the effects of artesunate on these factors. And we examined whether artesunate can alleviate RIF in vivo. METHODS: Rats were randomly assigned into unilateral ureteral...