Objective: To observe whether curcumin could inhibit the accumulation of the collagen Ⅳ and fibronectin in the glomeruli in nephrotoxi sera nephritis rats. Methods: Seventy-two healthy male Sprague-Dawley rats were divided into three groups, with 24 animals in each group. For normal control group, normal saline (0.5 ml/d) was injected through intra-caudal-vein for two days, and at the same time normal saline (0.5 ml/kg) was also daily administered intraperitoneally. For nephrotoxic sera nephritis group, nephrotoxic sera (0.5 ml/d) was injected through the tail vein for two days and dimethyl sulfoxide (0.5 ml/kg) was given intraperitoneally daily. For curcumin group, nephrotoxic sera was injected as above and meanwhile curcumin (50 mg·kg^-1·d^-1) was administered intraperitoneally every day. Six rats in each group were killed on the 3rd, 7th, 14th and 28th day. Their renal tissue was fixed in 10% formalin for examining the expression of collagen Ⅳ and fibronectin. Results: Minimal staining of collagen Ⅳ and fibronectin was detected in the basement membrane of normal control rats glomeruli. In the nephrotoxic sera nephritis rats and curcumin treated nephrotoxic sera nephritis rats, the accumulation of collagen Ⅳ and fibronectin was increased progressively, with significant difference in the accumulation of collagen Ⅳ(P <0.01) between these two groups at the same time points, while the significant difference in fibronectin accumulation (P <0.05) appeared only after the 7th days.Conclusion: Curcumin can reduce the accumulation of collagen Ⅳ and fibronectin in the glomeruli. Hence we postulated that curcumin might have beneficial effect for retarding glomerulosclerosis.

Key words: curcumin, nephrotoxic sera nephritis, collagen Ⅳ, fibronectin