Objective  To investigate the effects of Huai Qi Huang granules administered alone or combined with predisone on humoral immunity, cellular immunity, and proteinuria of adriamycin nephrosis rats.

  Methods  A total of 50 SD rats were randomly divided into 5 groups (all n=10), in which 4 groups were injected with a single dose of 6.5 mg/kg adriamycin into the caudal vein to establish nephrosis model, while the other group was injected with normal saline (NS) as normal control. Two weeks later, the nephrosis rat model was established successfully. The rats were treated by daily intragastric administration for 6 weeks:the normal control group (group A) and the nephrosis+NS group (group B) were treated with 2 ml NS; group C (nephrosis+predisone group), D (nephrosis+Huai Qi Huang group), and E (nephrosis+predisone+Huai Qi Huang group) were treated with 2 mg/kg prednisone, 2 g/kg Huai Qi Huang granule solution, and 2 mg/kg prednisone plus 2 g/kg Huai Qi Huang granule solution, respectively. The 5 groups were compared in terms of death rate, weight changes trend, 24-hour urinary protein increment, serum IgA, IgG and IgM, and percentages of lymphocyte subsets of CD3⁺T cells, CD3⁺CD4⁺T cells, CD3⁺CD8⁺T cells, CD45RA⁺B cells, CD161a⁺NK cells.

  Results  All nephrosis rats model were successfully made, with 24-hour urinary protein being (0.389±0.273)g/24 h. The death rates of group C and group E were significantly higher than those of group A and group B (P < 0.05), while no significant difference was found among group C, group D, and group E. The body weight of group A was sustainably growing; in contrast, the body weight of the other 4 groups grew in the 2 weeks before administration of treatment, but dropped thereafter, with no significant difference among the 4 groups. Six weeks after administration, 24-hour urinary protein of the 4 nephrosis groups were all increased, by (0.313±0.266), (0.404±0.235), (0.120±0.628), and (0.480±0.229)g/24 h, respectively, with no signficant difference in increment. There was no significant difference in the percentages of lymphocyte subsets (CD3⁺T cells, CD3⁺CD4⁺T cells, CD3⁺CD8⁺T cells, CD45RA⁺B cells, CD161a⁺NK cells) among the 5 groups. IgA, IgG, and IgM were higher in group B than in group A; IgA, IgG, and IgM in group C were lower than in group B; in group D, IgA was lower than in group B, IgG lower than in group A and group B, IgM higher than in group A and group C; and in group E, IgA and IgG were higher than in group A, group C and group D, IgM higher than in group A and group C; the differences were all of statistical significance (all P < 0.05). In addition, there was no significant difference of IgA, IgG, or IgM in the comparison between every other two groups.

  Conclusions  Humoral immunity in severe nephrosis rats is hyperfunctional. Huai Qi Huang is a bidirectional immune modulator. It could down-regulate hyperactive humoral immunity when used alone, similar to the effect of prednisone. When combined with prednisone, it could antagonize the immunosuppression effect of prednisone on the body. No regulation effect of different treatments on cellular immunity or proteinuria was found in this study.