Abstract
Renal fibrosis (RF) is the common pathway for a variety of chronic kidney diseases that progress to end-stage renal disease. Chitosan oligosaccharide (COS) has been identified as possessing many health functions. However, it is not clear whether COS can prevent RF. The purpose of this paper was to explore the action and mechanism of COS in alleviating RF. First, an acute unilateral ureteral obstruction operation (UUO) in male BALB/c mice was performed to induce RF, and COS or fosinopril (positive control drug) were administered for 7 consecutive days. Data from our experiments indicated that COS treatment can significantly alleviate kidney injury and decrease the levels of blood urea nitrogen (BUN) and serum creatinine (SCr) in the UUO mouse model. More importantly, our results show that COS can reduce collagen deposition and decrease the expression of fibrosis proteins, such as collagen IV, fibronectin, collagen I, α-smooth muscle actin (α-SMA) and E-cadherin, ameliorating experimental renal fibrosis in vivo. In addition, we also found that COS suppressed oxidative stress and inflammation in RF model mice. Further studies indicated that the mechanism by which COS alleviates renal fibrosis is closely related to the regulation of the TGF-β1/Smad pathway. COS has a therapeutic effect on ameliorating renal fibrosis similar to that of the positive control drug fosinopril. Taken together, COS can alleviate renal fibrosis induced by UUO by reducing oxidative stress damage and regulating the TGF-β1/Smad pathway.