A pathologic study on the inhibitory effects of a herbal medicine against the glomerular lesion induced by Agkistrodon venom in mice.

Abstract

The inhibitory effects of a prescription of herbal medicine, tentatively named P-3, were studied pathologically in an experimental model of the glomerular lesion induced by purified snake Agkistrodon acutus venom proteinase (Ac1-P) in mice. Ac1-P was intravenously inoculated at a single LD50 dose. In the treated group, mice were intraperitoneally injected with an extract of P-3 at a designated time once every two days from 2 days before to 1 week after Ac1-P inoculation. The control group mice were injected with saline instead of P-3. In the control group, the main pathologic changes within 48 hrs after inoculation were pulmonary and gastrointestinal tract hemorrhage and renal petechiae with hematuria. The kidney microscopically showed cystic transformation of the glomerular capillary tufts. followed by occlusive thrombosis. One week after inoculation, the glomerular lesions were mostly replaced by proliferative or proliferative-sclerosing changes with occasional crescent formation. Early signs of tubular atrophy accompanying the glomerular changes were observed. In the P-3 treated mice surviving 48 hrs and 1 week, the changes observed in the controls were markedly inhibited, although P-3 treated mice dying earlier than 30 hrs exhibited hemorrhagic changes similar to controls. This indicated that the herbal medicine had efficacy against the tissue injuries induced by Ac1-P as a proteolytic enzyme.