ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Endocrinol.
Sec. Diabetes: Molecular Mechanisms
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fendo.2025.1596000
This article is part of the Research TopicHerbal Medicine for the Treatment of Chronic Metabolic Diseases, Volume IIView all 30 articles
Protective Effects of Shenkang Injection Against Diabetic Kidney Disease via p38 MAPK/NFκB/MCP-1/CCR2 Pathway Inhibition
Provisionally accepted
- Beijing University of Chinese Medicine, Beijing, China
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Background: Diabetic kidney disease (DKD) is a complication of microvascular disease that occurs in the late stages of diabetes. Shenkang injection (SKI) has shown promising effects on DKD, but its mechanism has not been fully elucidated. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the mechanism by which SKI reduces kidney inflammatory injury and delays DKD progression.Methods: Several db/m mice were used as the control group, while db/db mice were randomly divided into the model group, the dagliflozin group, and the SKI group. HK-2 cells were cultured in vitro and divided into the control group, high glucose group, SKI group, and SB203580 group.In this study, the therapeutic effect of SKI on DKD was evaluated by observing the general condition of the mice alongside blood and urine biochemical indices. TEM, HE staining, PAS staining, and Mallory staining were utilized to assess the pathological injury of renal tissue.Immunohistochemistry, WB, and real-time qPCR were employed to detect the expression of the key proteins involved in the mechanisms in mouse renal tissue and HK-2 cells.The results indicated that the general condition and kidney injury were significantly improved in the SKI group, as evidenced by reduced urinary protein quantification, urinary albumin-to-creatinine ratio, SCr, and urea levels (P<0.01). Routine staining and TEM analyses demonstrated significant improvement in podocyte injury and renal interstitial fibrosis. The CCK-8 results demonstrated high cell survival rates in the SKI group. There were significant decreases in p-p38, p-NFκB, MCP-1, and CCR2 levels (P<0.05, P<0.01), with no statistical Abbreviation TEM,Transmission electron microscopy; HE, hematoxylin-eosin; PAS, Periodic acid-Schiff; WB, Western blots; SCr, serum creatinine; p-p38, phosphorylated p38 protein kinase; p-NFκB, phosphorylated nuclear transcription factor; MCP-1, monocyte chemotactic protein-1; CCR2, CC motif chemokine receptor 2; p38, p38 protein kinase; NFκB, nuclear transcription factor
Keywords: Shenkang injection, Diabetic kidney disease, p38 MAPK, NFkapapB, CCR2, MCP-1
Received: 19 Mar 2025; Accepted: 12 Aug 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Zhou, Wang, Jin, Kaidong, Cai and Zhao. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Zongjiang Zhao, Beijing University of Chinese Medicine, Beijing, China
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