Xiangya School of Public Health, Central South University, Changsha 410128, China.
Nutrients. 2020 May 22;12(5):1516. doi: 10.3390/nu12051516.
Diabetic nephropathy is a diabetic complication caused by chronic inflammation. As the primary polyphenol in pomegranate, punicalagin is believed to have significant anti-inflammatory properties. In this study, we established a mice model for diabetes induced by high-fat diet (HFD)/ streptozotocin (STZ) to verify the protective effect of punicalagin in vivo. The results show that the blood urea nitrogen (BUN), serum creatinine (CREA), and the urine albumin to creatinine ratio (UACR) were significantly decreased in diabetic mice after punicalagin intervention, and the symptoms of glomerular interstitial hyperplasia and glomerular hypertrophy were alleviated. Pyroptosis is an essential manner of programmed cell death in the inflammatory response; the expression of pyroptosis-related proteins such as interleukin-1 (IL-1β), cysteinyl aspartate-specific protease-1 (caspase-1), gasdermin D (GSDMD), and nucleotide-binding oligomerization domain, leucine-rich repeat and pyrin domain containing protein 3 (NLRP3) was decreased in our study, which proved that the administration of punicalagin for eight weeks can significantly inhibit pyroptosis in mice. In addition, punicalagin reduced high glucose-mediated protein expressions of nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate (NADPH) oxidase 4 (NOX4) and alleviated mitochondria damage. Low expression of NOX4 inhibits the dissociation of thioredoxin (Trx) and thioredoxin-interacting protein (TXNIP) and the suppression of NLRP3 inflammasome activation. To summarize, our study provided evidence that punicalagin can alleviate diabetic nephropathy, and the effect is associated with downregulating the expression of NOX4, inhibiting TXNIP/NLRP3 pathway-mediated pyroptosis, suggesting its therapeutic implications for complications of diabetes.
糖尿病肾病是一种由慢性炎症引起的糖尿病并发症。作为石榴中的主要多酚类物质,安石榴苷被认为具有显著的抗炎特性。在这项研究中,我们建立了高脂肪饮食(HFD)/链脲佐菌素(STZ)诱导的糖尿病小鼠模型,以验证安石榴苷在体内的保护作用。结果表明,安石榴苷干预后糖尿病小鼠的血尿素氮(BUN)、血清肌酐(CREA)和尿白蛋白与肌酐比值(UACR)显著降低,肾小球间质增生和肾小球肥大的症状得到缓解。细胞焦亡是炎症反应中程序性细胞死亡的一种重要方式;我们的研究表明,细胞焦亡相关蛋白如白细胞介素-1β(IL-1β)、半胱天冬氨酸特异性蛋白酶-1(caspase-1)、gasdermin D(GSDMD)和核苷酸结合寡聚结构域、富含亮氨酸重复和吡咯烷域包含蛋白 3(NLRP3)的表达降低,这证明安石榴苷给药 8 周可显著抑制小鼠的细胞焦亡。此外,安石榴苷降低了高葡萄糖介导的烟酰胺腺嘌呤二核苷酸磷酸(NADPH)氧化酶 4(NOX4)和减轻线粒体损伤的蛋白表达。NOX4 的低表达抑制了硫氧还蛋白(Trx)和硫氧还蛋白相互作用蛋白(TXNIP)的解离,从而抑制了 NLRP3 炎性小体的激活。总之,我们的研究提供了证据表明,安石榴苷可以减轻糖尿病肾病,其作用与下调 NOX4 的表达、抑制 TXNIP/NLRP3 通路介导的细胞焦亡有关,这提示了其在糖尿病并发症治疗中的意义。
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