Yishen Capsule Alleviated Symptoms of Diabetic Nephropathy via NOD-like Receptor Signaling Pathway

Figures & data

Table 1 Primer Pair Sequence of Target Genes

Gene Name		Gene Sequence (5’→3’)
NLRP3	Forward	TCTCTGCATGCCGTATCTGG
	Reverse	ACGGCGTTAGCAGAAATCCA
Caspase-1	Forward	CACGAGACCTGTGCGATCAT
	Reverse	GCGCCACCTTCTTTGTTCAG
IL-1β	Forward	CACTACAGGCTCCGAGATGAACAAC
	Reverse	TGTCGTTGCTTGGTTCTCCTTGTAC
β-actin	Forward	CACGATGGAGGGGCCGGACTCATC
	Reverse	TAAAGACCTCTATGCCAACACAGT

Figure 1 Effect of Yishen capsule on 24-hour urinary microalbumin and pathological changes of kidney. (A) The level of 24-hour urinary microalbumin in each group. (B) Histopathological changes in each group. (*P < 0.05. Black arrows represent glycogen expression. Red arrows represent edema and vacuolar degeneration of renal tubular epithelial cells and mesangial cell proliferation, matrix accumulation).

Abbreviations: N, normal group; DN, diabetic nephropathy group; YS, Yishen capsule group; R, resveratrol group.

Figure 2 Differentially expressed genes (DEGs) of the normal group versus DN group and YS group. (A) The volcano map of 321 DEGs between the normal group and DN group. (B) The volcano map of 261 DEGs between DN group and YS group. (C) Hierarchical clustering analysis of kidney samples between normal group, DN group and YS group, from 3 independent rats. The abscissa represents the log2FoldChange, and the ordinate indicates -log10 (p-value) of gene expression between the two groups. Up-regulated genes were red dots and down-regulated genes were blue dots.

Figure 3 Functional and pathway enrichment analysis of DEGs among the different groups of rats. (A) GO enrichment analysis of DEGs in the normal group of rats compared with DN rats. (B) GO enrichment analysis of DEGs in DN group of rats compared with YS group rats.

Abbreviations: CC, cellular component; MF, molecular function; BP, biological process.

Figure 4 KEGG enrichment analysis for DEGs identified by transcriptomics analysis. (A) KEGG enrichment analysis for DEGs between the normal group and DN group. (B) KEGG enrichment analysis for DEGs between DN group and YS group.

Figure 5 Effect of Yishen capsule on NOD like receptor signaling pathway. (A) Immunohistochemistry staining for NLRP3, caspase-1 and IL-1β (×400). (B) The mRNA expression of NLRP3, caspase-1 and IL-1β. (*P < 0.05. Red arrows indicate the expression of target proteins detected by immunohistochemistry, with brown particles in glomerular, renal tubular epithelial cells).