Screening of herb medicines for recovery of acetaminophen-induced nephrotoxicity

The goal of this study was to determine the selection of recovery herbal medicines in acetaminophen-induced nephrotoxicity. In the present study, we investigated the recovery effects of 255 herb medicines in damaged HEK 293 cells using MTS assay. HEK 293 cells were first cultured in 96-well plates (1×10⁵/ml) for 24h, and pretreated with 20µM Acetaminophen (IC₅₀ value: 17.5±1.9) or with non-treated (control). After 1h incubation, different herb medicines were added to the wells, and the cells were reincubated at 37⁰C for 24h. Among these extracts, 15 herb medicines (Ledebouriella divaricata, Lilium brownie, Psoralea corylifolia, Citrus medica, Sparganium simplex, Panax ginseng, Perilla frutescens, Aster tataricus, Gleditsia sinensis, Lycium chinense, Anemarrhena asphodeloides, Citrus aurantium, Sanguisorba officianlis, Arisaema consanguineum, Morinda officinalis, Polygonum aviculare) had the best recovery effect on acetaminophen-induced damage in HEK 293 cells. These herb medicines can be encouraged for the discovery of new therapeutic agents for the treatment of renal diseases.

Acknowledgements: This work was supported by the Korea Science and Engineering Foundation (KOSEF) grant funded by the Korea government (MEST) (No. R13–2007–00000–0).