Abstract. Ursolic acid, a pentacyclic triterpene compound with low toxicity and easy availability, has a variety of biological activities, including antitumor, antioxidant, antihepatitis, anti-inflammatory and antibacterial effects. The present study aimed to investigate the renoprotective effects of ursolic acid on ischemia/reperfusion-induced acute kidney injury (I/R-IAKI) in rats associated with its antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects, as well as interference with the signal transducer and activator of transcription (STAT)3/nuclear factor (NF)-κB signaling pathway. The present study demonstrated that pre-treatment with ursolic acid significantly increased renal functioning and attenuated increases of serum angiotensin II levels in rats subjected to I/R-IAKI. In addition, I/R-IAKI-induced inflammation and oxidative stress were significantly reduced by pre-treatment with ursolic acid. Furthermore, ursolic acid significantly suppressed the upregulation of STAT3, NF-κB and caspase-3 activities in rats following I/R-IAKI. These results indicated that ursolic acid may be a potential drug for reducing I/R-IAKI through suppression of inflammation and oxidative stress damage, as well as modulation of STAT3 and NF-κB activities.

Abstract. The expression and function of long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) in clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC) remains unclear. The present study measured the expression profiles of three lncRNAs (uc009yby.1, ENST00000514034, and ENST00000450687) using reverse transcriptionquantitative polymerase chain reaction, and assessed their signatures in distinguishing ccRCC from matched normal tissues via analysis of receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves. The expression of uc009yby.1 was inhibited by transfection of renal cells with small interfering RNA, and then the cell proliferation was evaluated by using a Cell Counting Kit-8. The results showed that the expressions of uc009yby.1 and ENST00000514034 were markedly increased in ccRCC compared with the matched normal tissues (P<0.0001 and P= 0.0008, respectively), whereas the ENST00000450687 expression was not significantly altered. ROC curves yielded an area under the curve (AUC) value of 0.7000 for uc009yby.1, with sensitivity of 54.29% and specificity of 82.86%; and an AUC value of 0.6627 for ENST00000514034, with sensitivity of 60.00% and specificity of 67.14%. Furthermore, knockdown of uc009yby.1 suppressed renal cell proliferation (Day 0, P= 0.7844; Day 1, P= 0.0018; Day 2, P= 0.0001; Day 3, P<0.000; Day 4, P<0.0001). Taken together, these findings suggest that the expression profiles of uc009yby.1 and ENST00000514034 may serve as novel biomarkers for ccRCC detection, and that uc009yby.1 is strongly associated with renal cell proliferation.

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