Impact of licochalcone A on the progression of diabetic nephropathy in type 2 diabetes mellitus of C57BL/6 mice

Diabetic nephropathy (DN) is the most common chronic microvascular complication of diabetes. Therefore, it is of great significance to effectively prevent and treat DN. Licochalcone A (LicA) is a flavonoid found in licorice; previous studies have shown that LicA can reduce blood glucose, blood lipids and improve insulin resistance. There has been no research on whether LicA can prevent and treat DN. In this study, an animal model of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) mice induced by high fat diet/streptozotocin was established, and the intervention of LicA was applied to investigate the protective effect of LicA on the kidneys of DN mice. After 4 weeks of intervention, LicA could effectively reduce blood glucose and alleviate the phenomenon of weight loss in mice. Meanwhile, the levels of MDA, SOD and GSH-Px in the kidney tissue and serum were recovered to different degrees. Besides, LicA decreased the levels of TC, TG and LDL-C in the kidney tissue and increased the level of HDL-C in the kidney tissue. The 24 h urinary protein, blood urea nitrogen (BUN) and serum creatinine (SCr) levels of mice in the treatment group of LicA were significantly lower than those in the model group. Furthermore, HE staining, PAS staining and Masson staining indicated that LicA improved the pathological damage of kidneys, and the kidney index of mice also decreased. Western blotting results indicated that LicA could significantly down-regulate the protein expression of AGEs/RAGE, TGF-β1, HIF-1α and GLUT1, and up-regulate the protein expression of Nrf2. It provides a theoretical basis for the further development and utilization of LicA.