Agrimonia pilosa ledeb alleviates inflammatory responses in diabetic kidney disease by inhibiting the JNK/p38 signaling pathway

Inflammatory response is a key for the emergence and progression of diabetic kidney disease (DKD). Studies have proved that Agrimonia pilosa Ledeb (APL) as a traditional Chinese herbal medicine has strong anti-oxidant and anti-inflammatory effects, but how APL plays on DKD hasn’t been reported. This work explored the effects and potential regulatory mechanism of APL in DKD, aiming to inspire new ideas for developing novel drugs for DKD. DKD mice were induced by streptozotocin (STZ) and treated with APL extract of different concentrations by gavage. Blood glucose, blood lipids, renal function, and histopathological examination were performed using blood glucose meter and biochemical analyzer, HE staining, PAS staining and immunohistochemistry separately. Subsequently, Western blot and ELISA were used to determine the expression of inflammatory factors and JNK/p38 pathway proteins in mice kidney tissue. The results showed that APL concentration-dependently reduced blood glucose and lipid levels in DKD mice, alleviated kidney injury, and reduced the expression of fibrotic factors and inflammatory factors in kidney tissue. In addition, APL also effectively inhibited the expression of the JNK/p38 pathway proteins. It can be speculated that APL may alleviate pathological damage and inflammatory response in DKD by inhibiting the JNK/p38 signaling pathway.