Wang Siwang

Simultaneous quantification of six main active constituents in Chinese Angelica by high-performance liquid chromatography with photodiode array detector

Background: Angelica sinensis is a famous traditional Chinese medicinalherb, which is predominantly used in the treatment of gynecological conditions. It is the first report for the simultaneous determination of six major active components in Chinese Angelica, which is important for quality control. Objective: A validated HPLC-PAD method was first developed to evaluate the quality of crude and processed Radix Angelica through simultaneous determination of six bioactive compounds, namely ferulic acid, senkyunolide I, senkyunolide H, coniferyl ferulate, Z/E-ligustilide and Z/E-butylidenephthalide. Materials and Methods: Samples were separated on a Xtimate™C18 column (250 × 4.6 mm, 5 μm) and detected by PAD. Mobile phase was composed of (A) aqueous phosphoric acid (0.02%, v/v) and (B) acetonitrile (MeCN) (including 10% tetrahydrofuran, v/v) using a gradient elution. Analytes were performed at 30°C with a flow rate of 1.0 mL/min. Results: All calibration curves showed good linear regression (r2 ≥ 0.9963) within the tested ranges, and the recovery of the method was in the range of 91.927–105.859%. Conclusion: The results demonstrate that the developed method is accurate and reproducible and could be readily utilized as a suitable quality control method for the quantification of Radix Angelica.

Dencichine ameliorates kidney injury in induced type II diabetic nephropathy via the TGF-β/Smad signalling pathway

&NA; Diabetic nephropathy (DN), a common complication associated with both type I and type II diabetes mellitus (DM), is a major cause of chronic nephropathy and a common cause of end‐stage renal diseases (ESRD) throughout the world. This study is aimed to determine whether dencichine (De) can ameliorate renal damage in high‐glucose‐and‐fat diet combined STZ (streptozocin) induced DN in type II DM rats and to investigate the potential underlying mechanisms. Markers of metabolism, diabetes, and renal function, and levels of extracellular matrix (ECM) collagen I (Col I), collagen IV (Col IV), fibronectin (FN) and laminin (LN), and of proteins in the TGF‐&bgr;/Smad pathway were analysed through RT‐PCR, western blot, immunofluorescence and immunohistochemistry. The results show that De significantly alleviates metabolism disorder, improved renal function, relieved pathological alterations in the glomerulus of DN rats, decreased ECM deposition and increased the ratio of matrix metalloproteinase (MMP)‐9 to tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinase (TIMP)‐1 both in vivo and in vitro. Moreover, De negatively regulated TGF‐&bgr;/Smad signalling pathway and increased the expression of Smad7, an endogenic inhibitory Smad located downstream of the signalling pathway. In conclusion, we provide experimental evidence indicating that the renoprotective effect of De could significantly prevent the progression of DN possibly attribute to down‐regulation of the TGF‐&bgr;/Smad pathway and rebalance the deposition and degradation of ECM proteins.