Table 1.

Body and kidney weights, index of renal hypertrophy, and the renal function-related parameters in experimental animals at the end of the eight-week treatment

	Normal rats		STZ-diabetic rats
	Vehicle	Vehicle	Ruscogenin (mg/kg/day)			Rosiglitazone (5 mg/kg/day)
			0.3	1.0	3.0
Body weight (BW) (g/rat)	374.88 ± 17.92d	214.84 ± 14.95b	237.3 ± 17.21b	261.98 ± 18.32b,c	291.64 ± 16.24b,c	315.18 ± 18.10a,d
Plasma glucose (mg/dl)	92.78 ± 7.32d	423.12 ± 16.22b	418.27 ± 15.34b	412.37 ± 17.41b	409.87 ± 14.68b	262.31 ± 13.71b,c
HbAlc (%)	4.79 ± 1.03d	14.32 ± 1.79b	14.10 ± 1.63b	13.92 ± 1.84b	13.85 ± 1.65b	9.63 ± 1.59b,c
Kidney weight (KW) (g/rat)	1.38 ± 0.17d	2.28 ± 0.15b	2.07 ± 0.13b	1.93 ± 0.21b	1.85 ± 0.19a,c	1.79 ± 0.18a,d
KW/BW ratio (%)	0.37 ± 0.07d	1.06 ± 0.08b	0.87 ± 0.09b	0.74 ± 0.06b,c	0.62 ± 0.04a,d	0.57 ± 0.05a,d
24-h urine volume (ml/day)	8.96 ± 1.76d	27.30 ± 2.95b	21.84 ± 3.11b	19.65 ± 2.43b,c	17.65 ± 3.05a,c	15.34 ± 2.62a,c
24-h urine protein (mg/day)	6.60 ± 2.57d	28.36 ± 3.95b	24.11 ± 3.25b	19.85 ± 2.57,c	14.82 ± 3.29 a,d	10.26 ± 4.12a,d
Scr (μmol/l)	34.07 ± 5.26d	87.23 ± 7.96b	70.33 ± 5.83b,c	69.78 ± 4.92b,c	62.21 ± 5.61b,c	56.49 ± 6.92b,c
BUN (mmol/l)	6.51 ± 0.82d	18.85 ± 1.13b	15.68 ± 1.25b,c	14.27 ± 1.38b,c	12.66 ± 0.94b,c	9.71 ± 1.02a,c
Ccr (ml/min)	4.83 ± 0.63d	1.78 ± 0.71b	2.14 ± 0.56b	2.92 ± 0.61b	3.43 ± 0.59a,c	3.71 ± 0.74d

STZ-diabetic rats were dosed by oral gavage once per day for eight weeks with ruscogenin at the indicated dosage, or rosiglitazone. Normal or STZ-diabetic rats receiving vehicle treatment were given the same volume of vehicle (distilled water) used to prepare test medications. Values (mean ± SD) were obtained for each group of 8 animals. ^aP < 0.05 and ^bP < 0.01 compared to the values of vehicle-treated normal rats, respectively. ^cP < 0.05 and ^dP < 0.01 compared to the values of vehicle-treated STZ-diabetic rats, respectively.