Renal
ischemia and reperfusion (I/R) injury, which commonly occurs in
kidney transplantation, is the leading cause of
acute kidney injury.
Picroside II possesses a wide range of pharmacological effects, including anti-apoptosis effects. In the present study, the ability of
picroside II to attenuate apoptosis in a rat model of renal I/R injury was investigated. Sprague-Dawley rats were subjected to 45 min of
ischemia followed by 24 h of reperfusion. Prior to reperfusion, the rats were treated with
picroside II or an equal volume of
phosphate-buffered saline. It was observed that renal function was significantly improved by the treatment with
picroside II. Morphological analysis indicated that
picroside II markedly reduced tissue damage and the expression of cleaved
caspase-3. Reverse transcription-quantitative polymerase chain reaction and western blotting revealed that the expression levels of Bax and
poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase-1 (PARP-1) were upregulated in the I/R group, whereas those of Bcl-2 were downregulated. However, the treatment with
picroside II inhibited these changes induced by renal I/R injury. In conclusion,
picroside II has potent anti-apoptotic activity against renal I/R injury.