Effects Of Rhein On Transdifferentiation And NF-κB Activity Of Human Kidney Cells Induced By TGF-β₁ In Vitro

Objective Tubular epithelial myofibroblast transdifferention may be one of the important mechanisms of interstitial fibrosis in progressive renal disease. The aim of this study is to examine effect of Rhein on transdifferention of human tubular epithelial cells induced by TGF-β₁ and its relationship with NF-κB activity changes.Methods The human kidney cells(HK-2) were cultured for 24h,48h,72h in different conditions in vitro, divide into groups as follow:â‘ Serum free as control;(2)Treated with TGF-β₁ (8ng/ml);â‘¢Treated with Rhein at different concentration(4,8,16ug/ml);â‘£Treated with Rhein(4,8,16ug/ml) plus TGF-β₁ (8ng/ml);The expression of cytokeratin,a-SMA was assessed with indirect immuno-fluorescence, Reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction(RT-PCR) was used to detect the expression of mRNA of NF-κB in HK-2.Results The expression of cytokeratin was markedly decreased in HK-2 treated with TGF-β₁, but not changed in HK-2 treated with Rhein alone, The expression of a-SMA of HK-2 cultured with TGF-β₁ was much notable than the control, and significantly decreased in HK-2 cultured with TGFβ₁ plus Rhein. The expression level of mRNA of NF-κB was higher in the TGF-β₁ group than that in control group and Rhein(4,8,16ug/ml) plus TGF-β₁ group (p<0.05).Conclusions Rhein at given concentration may inhibit tubular epithelial myofibroblast transdifferentiation of HK-2 induced by TGF-β₁ in vitro as well as NF-κB expression of HK-2 under TGF-β₁ induction condition in a dose dependent manner. The inhibition of Rhein on transdifferentiation of HK-2 induced by TGF-β₁ may be related to the down-regulation of NF-κB expression, which need to be study further.