Huoxue Jiedu Huayu recipe alleviates contralateral renal fibrosis in unilateral ureteral obstruction rats by inhibiting the transformation of macrophages to myofibroblast.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the action and underlying mechanisms of Huoxue Jiedu Huayu recipe (活血解毒化瘀方, HJHR) against unilateral ureteral obstruction (UUO)-induced injury in the contralateral kidney. METHODS: Forty-eight male Sprague-Dawley rats weighing (200 ± 10) g were used in this study and randomly assigned to 4 groups: a sham group, a UUO group, a UUO + eplerenone (EPL) group, and a UUO + HJHR group. The contralateral kidneys were harvested for further study 180 d after surgery. Histological analysis, immunohistochemistry and immunofluorescence were used to study the fibrosis of the contralateral kidneys obtained from UUO rats. Contralateral kidney damage-related pathway proteins were detected by real-time polymerase chain reaction and Western blot analysis. RESULTS: HJHR significantly inhibited fibrosis of the contralateral kidney in UUO rats by attenuating the UUO-induced macrophage-to-myofibroblast transition (MMT) in the contralateral kidney. Moreover, HJHR attenuated fibrosis in the contralateral kidney of UUO rats by pre-venting MMT through the aldosterone/mineralocorticoid receptor/serum/glucocorticoid regulated kinase 1 path-way. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings suggest that HJHR may be a potential treatment for renal interstitial fibrosis of obstructive nephropathy.