Objective: To study the protective effect of curcumin on renal fibrosis in chronic kidney disease, and to explore the possible mechanism of action.
Methods: Thirty C57BL/6J mice were randomly divided into sham operation control group (NC), 5/6 kidney ligation model group (LIG) and curcumin treatment group (LIG+CUR), 10 in each group, according to the modified 5/6 6. Kidney ligation method was used to make CKD animal models. The mice in the curcumin group were given curcumin-containing diet (100 mg/kg per day), and the other groups were given normal diet. After three months, the mice were sacrificed to detect the fibrosis index α-SMA and participation in chronic diseases. Yap, a transcriptional activator of Hippo pathway in nephrotic fibrosis. Results The results of renal function test showed that compared with the sham operation group, blood urea nitrogen (BUN) and serum creatinine (Scr) in the ligation group were significantly increased, and curcumin can effectively protect the kidneys functional impairment; H&E, Masson and immunohistochemical results showed that the kidneys of mice in the ligation group had obvious renal tubular lesions and a certain degree of fibrosis, and the degree of fibrosis was significantly alleviated after curcumin administration (P<0.05); The mRNA and protein levels of Yap protein increased after modeling, but decreased significantly after curcumin treatment (P<0.05).
Conclusion: Curcumin can effectively improve 5/6 kidney ligation-induced chronic kidney disease and reduce fibrotic lesions, and the mechanism research results preliminarily suggest that it may be related to the reduction of Yap expression in the Hippo signaling pathway.