Abstract
Scope: Diabetic retinopathy (DR) is a severe microvascular complication of diabetes. Previous clinical trials have shown that Compound Danshen Dripping Pill (CDDP) improves DR symptoms. However, the mechanism involved remains unclear.Procedures: Rats fed a high-fat diet and injected with streptozotocin (STZ) were used as an experimental type 2 diabetes rodent model. CDDP was administered to two groups of diabetic rats at 0.2 and 0.4 g/kg/day via gastric gavage for 12 weeks. After the 12 weeks of treatment, retinal function was evaluated by electroretinography (ERG). Histological staining and TdT-mediated dUTP nick-end labeling (TUNEL) assays were also performed. Retinal genome expression was determined by gene array.Results: We found that CDDP moderated ERG and histological abnormalities in diabetic rats, independent of blood glucose level. A gene array showed that CDDP changed 262 genes significantly in the diabetic retina. Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway analysis indicated that differentially expressed genes in the CDDP-treated groups were involved mainly in the apoptosis pathway. Moreover, CDDP reduced the number of TUNEL-positive cells in the diabetic retinas. CDDP prevented the reduction in Bcl-2 expression and the increase in BCL-2 associated X (Bax) and caspase-3 (Casp3) expression in diabetic rats.Conclusion: Our results suggest that CDDP exerts its neuroprotective functions by inhibiting cell apoptosis in diabetic rats.
Highlights
Diabetic retinopathy (DR) is one of the main complications of diabetes (Cheung et al, 2010)
Compound Danshen Dripping Pill (CDDP) did not moderate the amplitudes of the a-waves in diabetic rats (P > 0.05, Figure 2A), it enhanced the amplitudes of the b-waves and oscillatory potentials (OPs) (P < 0.05, Figures 2B,C)
These results indicate that CDDP restored retina function in diabetic rats
Summary
Diabetic retinopathy (DR) is one of the main complications of diabetes (Cheung et al, 2010). It is the leading cause of blindness in patients aged 20–70 years. DR has become an important public health problem that affects more than 90% of diabetic patients. The current treatment for DR is for only advanced stages of the disease (Simo and Hernandez, 2009). Drugs for early stage intervention in DR are limited. Scientists believed that DR was only a diabetic microvascular complication (AbuEl-Asrar et al, 2004). Increasing evidence shows that all retinal cells possess pathological changes from the early stages of diabetes (Lieth et al, 2000; Gardner et al, 2002).
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