Tgf β1

Blood was drawn from about 1-cm capillaries under the eyelids, and serum was obtained after centrifuging at 3000 rpm for 5 min. IL-1β (MitcSciences, USA), TNF-α (Sangon Biotech, Shanghai, China), IL-10 (Sangon Biotech, Shanghai, China), and IL-17 (Sangon Biotech, Shanghai, China) ELISA kit for rats were used to detect the IL-1β, TNF-α, TGF-β1, and IL-17 levels, respectively, in serum.

Ginsenoside Rg1 (purity ≥98%) and Astragaloside IV (purity ≥98%) were purchased from ChengDu ConBon Bio-tech Co., Ltd. (Chengdu, China). The methane dicarboxylic aldehyde (MDA), catalase (CAT), glutathione peroxidase (GSH-PX) and total anti-oxidative capacity (T-AOC) assay kits for rats were bought from Jiancheng Bioengineering Institute (Nanjing, China). Rat blood urea nitrogen (BUN), serum creatinine (SCr), β₂-microglobulin (β₂-MG) and urinary creatinine (UCr) ELISA kits were also purchased from Jiancheng Bioengineering Institute. Streptozotocin (STZ) was bought from Sigma (St Louis, MO, USA). Polyclonal antibodies used for immunohistochemical analysis included TGF-β1 (Santa Cruz Biotechnology, Dallas, TX, USA), Smad2/3 (Cell Sig-naling, Danvers, MA, China), Smad7 (Bioss, Woburn, MA, USA) and CTGF (Bioss). Rat SP immunohistochemistry kits were purchased from Thermo Fisher Scientific (Waltham, MA, USA). The primer sequences of TGF-β1, Smad7, CTGF and ACTB (listed in Table 1) used for real-time PCR analysis were bought from Sangon Biotech Co., Ltd (Shanghai, China). Real-Time PCR Reagents & Kits and Total RNA Extractor (Trizol) were bought from Thermo Fisher Scientific. The other reagents used were of analytical grade.