中草药干预糖尿病肾病炎症的作用

随着糖尿病发病率逐年升高，糖尿病肾病成为导致慢性肾脏疾病和终末期肾脏疾病的主要原因。而目前控制血糖及抑制肾素-血管紧张素系统的药物治疗，并不能有效防止糖尿病肾病进展。近年来发现，慢性低水平炎症和免疫系统激活在糖尿病性肾病的发生及发展中起着至关重要的作用。明确糖尿病肾病进展中的炎症机制将有助于确定新的潜在靶点及研发抗炎治疗策略。越来越多的证据表明，中药治疗可以有效改善糖尿病性肾病的高血糖和蛋白尿，并能延缓其进展成为终末期肾病。糖尿病肾病动物实验和体外研究证实中药复方、中草药提取物和中药单体具有调节炎症介质的作用。本文旨在归纳总结文献中与糖尿病肾病肾损伤相关的炎症分子和途径，并探讨中草药靶向抗炎治疗糖尿病肾病的作用。

Regulation of Chinese herbal medicines in inflammation of diabetic nephropathy

With increasing incidences of diabetes, diabetic nephropathy (DN) becomes the leading cause of chronic kidney disease and end-stage (ESRD) renal disease worldwide. However, the current pharmacological treatments for glycemic control and inhibitors of the renin-angiotensin system cannot effectively prevent the progression of DN. Recent studies show that the chronic low-grade inflammation and activation of the immune system have emerged as a paramount role in the development and progression of DN. Understanding the inflammatory cascade and mechanisms in the progression of DN will enable identification of new potential targets and facilitate the design of innovation anti-inflammatory therapeutic strategies. Growing evidence has demonstrated that the treatment of Chinese herbal medicines for DN improves hyperglycemia and proteinuria interrupting progression to ESRD. Chinese herbal medicines including herbal formulas, single herbal medicines, extracts of herbs, and compounds from herb, have been proved to regulate inflammation in DN animal and cell line models. In this review, we focus on inflammatory molecules and pathways in relation to renal injury of DN, and discuss potential traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) strategies to treat DN via targeting inflammatory factors.