EFFECT OF TRADITIONAL CHINESE MEDICINE (SAIREI-TO) ON MONOCLONAL ANTIBODY-INDUCED PROTEINURIA IN RATS

The effects of traditional Chinese medicine (Sairei-to) on monoclonal antibody (mAb) inducing proteinuria were examined. Four hundred, 200 a nd 100 mg/kg body weight (BW) of Sairei-to and phosphate-buffered sali ne (PBS) as a control were injected intraperitoneally into four groups of female Wistar rats every day from 5 days before intravenous inject ion of mAb to the end of the experimental period. The amount of urinar y protein excretion was significantly suppressed in roughly a dose-dep endent manner. For example, 116.6 +/- 89.7 mg/day of proteinuria was o bserved in control groups compared to 4.2 +/- 15.2 mg/day in the 400 m g/kg BW of Sairei-to treated group 2 days after mAb injection (P < 0.0 1). Statistically significant (P < 0.01) differences were again observ ed in a repeat experiment (122.1 +/- 53.7 vs 10.2 +/- 10.1 mg/day on t he 2nd day) without affecting the glomerular filtration rate. No signi ficant difference was recognized between the total amount of mAb bound to glomeruli 1 h after mAb injection in Sairei-to-treated and non-tre ated rats, indicating that Sairei-to pretreatment has no effects on th e number or quality of antigenic molecules. The effect of Sairei-to on a non-immunological model of proteinuria was also examined. No signif icant reduction of proteinuria by similar Sairei-to treatment was obse rved in aminonucleoside of puromycin nephropathy. The authors conclude that mAb-induced proteinuria in rats is significantly suppressed by t he traditional Chinese medicine, Sairei-to.