Alginate oligosaccharides ameliorate busulfan-induced renal tubule injury

Kidney diseases endanger human health and place a heavy burden on global health care systems. The current study aimed to explore the beneficial advances of alginate oligosaccharides (AOS) as a functional food on kidney structure and function, and the underlying mechanisms with a busulfan disrupted kidney model. We found that AOS improved the busulfan disrupted renal tubules. Busulfan increased the protein levels of kidney injury marker kidney injury molecule-1, apoptosis marker caspase 3 and inflammation marker TNF-α while they were recovered by AOS. On the other hand, AOS promoted the expression of proteins involved in vascular development α-SMA, CD34 and TGF-β which were decreased by busulfan. Furthermore, AOS elevated the beneficial blood metabolites levels while reduced the harmful blood metabolites levels. Therefore, AOS can be applied to improve kidney function for the patients who take chemotherapeutics such as busulfan or other patients with chronic kidney diseases.