Uncovering the biological mechanism of acupuncture alleviating diabetic nephropathy through homeostasis regulation the of intestinal flora and T lymphocytes

Abstract

Abstract Diabetic nephropathy (DN) is a major healthcare challenge in the management of diabetic patients.The aim of this study was to investigate the protective role of acupuncture treatment in the treatment of DN.After DN modelling, DN rats were treated with acupuncture (4 weeks) and diabetic metabolic parameters and urinary proteins were measured. Hematoxylin-Eosin (HE) staining and Periodic Acid-Schiff(PAS) staining were conducted to assess the degree of renal structural damage. Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was used to detect inflammatory factors mediated by renal T-lymphocyte polarization.Western Blotting (WB) was used to analyze the FOXP3/NF-κB signaling pathway. Composition of T-lymphocyte taxa was detected by flow cytometric analysis. Furtherment, the composition of intestinal microorganisms was detected by 16S rDNA sequencing to explore the effects of acupuncture treatment on the composition and structure of intestinal flora in DN rats.Herein, our results show that acupuncture treatment alleviates renal pathological changes, reduces expression of pro-inflammatory factors, and remodels T-lymphocyte homeostasis in DN rats. Detection of intestinal microorganisms showed that acupuncture improved the composition and structure of intestinal flora and up-regulated the content of probiotics. Our study reveals that remodeling of T-lymphocyte homeostasis through the microbial-gut-kidney axis and consequent inhibition of pro-inflammatory cytokine activation may be the underlying biological mechanism of acupuncture in the treatment of DN.