Effect of connective tissue growth factor in different phase of diabetic nephropathy

ZHANG Jing-yun; ZHANG Qiu-mei; YU De-min; LI Chun-jun; LI Ming-zhen

doi:10.3760/cma.j.issn.1673-4777.2011.09.021

Abstract：Objective To investigate the effect of connective tissue growth factor(CTGF) in different phase of streptozotocin(STZ) -induced diabetic nephropathy and the significance of examination of urine CTGF as one of the diabetic nephropathy(DN) diagnostic index. Methods STZ was used to induce diabetic rat model. Then the changes of CTGF expression in the kidney cortex at different phase of diabetes were examined. The relationship between CTGF expression and renal hypertrophy, the extracellular matrix (ECM) accumulation, diabetic glomerulosclcrosis and interstitial fibrogenesis were studied. Enzyme-linked immunoabsorbent assay was performed to examine the change of urine CTGF. Results Renal cortex CTGF expression increased at the second week of diabete onset and gradually increased along with the course of diabetes and reached peak at 12th week (P ＜ 0.05). The expression appeared in renal glomerulus in the early phase of DN and also appeared in renal tubular interstitial tissue in the later period. The relevant analysis demonstrated positive correlation between the expression of CTGF and the renal index, renal glomerular volume, mesangial matrix index and fibrosis degree of renal tubule tubular interstitial fibrogenesis (P ＜ 0. 01). The diabetic rat urine CTGF content increased (P ＜ 0. 01) along with the course of diabetes,which showed a positive correlation with urine MA, BUN and Cr (P ＜ 0.01). Conclusions CTGF plays a vital role in the DN developing process. Its expression increases through the whole process of DN. In the early time. CTGF mediates the renal hypertrophy and the glomerular ECM accumulation, and in the later period it also mediates diabetic glomerulosclerosis and interstitial fibrogenesis. The examination of urine CTGF content can be one of the DN diagnostic index.