Objectives ; This study was undertaken to determine if Salviae Radix herb-acupuncture (SRA) exerts protective effect against alterations in membrane transport function in rabbits with mercury chloride (Hg)-induced acute renal failure.
Methods and Results ; The administration of Hg at a subcutaneous single dose of 10㎎/㎏ caused a reduction in GFR to 9.4% of the basal value and an increase in fractional Na+ excretion to 10-fold, indicating generation of acute renal failure. When animals were acupunctured with 0.5 ㎖ of SRA extract (0.1%) in both sides of Shinsu(BL23) for 7 days ◎ to Hg administration, such changes were significantly attenuated. The fractional excretion of glucose and phosphate was increased to approximately 132-fold and 7-fold, respectivety, in rabbits treated with Hg alone, but the fractional excretion of glucose was increased to 26-fold and that of phosphate was not different from the basal value in SRA-pretreated rabbits. Uptakes of glacose and phosphate in purified isolated brush-border membrane and Na^+-K^+-ATPase activity in microsomal fraction were inhibited in rabbits treated with Hg alone, suggesting that impairment in proximal reabsorption of glucose and phosphate is resulted from a direct damage of membrane transport carriers and disruption of the normal Na^+ gradient.
Conclusions ; Such changes were prevented by SRA. Uptakes of organic ions, PAH and TEA, in renal cortical slices were inhibited by the administration of Hg, which was prevented by SRA. Pretreatment of an antioxidant DPPD attenuated the increase in the fractional excretion of glucose and phosphate induced by the administration of Hg.
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