ABSTRACT Purpose: To explore the potential impact of traditional Chinese herb FuZhengHuaYuJiangZhuTongLuo recipe (FZHY) on renal interstitial fibrosis (RIF) in chronic kidney disease (CKD) at cellular and molecular levels. Methods: Unilateral ureteral obstruction (UUO) rats were established as the RIF model in vivo. The rats were given intragastric administration with FZHY once a day for consecutive 7, 14 and 21 days, respectively. The renal function parameters and inflammation indicators in kidney tissues were measured using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, the CD4+/CD8+ T cells in peripheral blood was detected using flow cytometry, the renal fibrosis degree was estimated using Masson’s staining, and the fibrosis-related genes’ expression was detected using quantitative polymerase chain reaction, western blotting, and immunohistochemistry analyses. Results: FZHY prescription reduced the serum creatinine and blood urea nitrogen, decreased the levels of c-reactive protein, interleukin-1, interleukin-6 and tumor necrosis factor-α in kidney tissues, and increased the ratio of CD4+/CD8+ T cells in peripheral blood. FZHY prescription suppressed the renal tissue fibrosis and reduced the levels of laminin, fibronectin, collagen I and collagen III. Conclusions: FZHY prescription suppressed the renal fibrosis and improved the condition of “Healthy Qi Deficiency and Evil Qi Excess” in rats with UUO, which may provide an effective method for CKD treatment.

Hot rolling experiments were designed to investigate the effect of rolling temperature and rolling deformation on microstructure, thickness and surface red scale of hot rolled mild steel oxide scale by spectrometer, SEM and pickling experiment. The research results show that in the same other experiment conditions, the greater the rolling deformation, the thinner the oxide scale extend; with the increase of rolling temperature, the plasticity of oxide scale is enhanced, the oxide scale can be compacted under a larger rolling reduction, which increase the adhesion of oxide scale to substrate and reduce the oxide scale falling off. The higher rolling temperature is, the greater the allowable critical deformation to inhibit red scale is, and the thicker tolerable thickness of the initial oxide scale is. In the process of hot strip rolling, improving rolling load distribution of the front frame and reducing the rolling deformation of the tail frame is helpful to control strip red scale and make oxide scale deform uniformly.

Electric induction reheating is used to control the temperature of hot-rolled steel products. To investigate the effect of this on microstructure and mechanical properties, hot-rolled low-alloy steel plate was cooled, reheated, and then either quenched or normalized. Analysis of the microstructure and mechanical properties showed that this process had a greater effect on quenched steel plate than on normalized steel plate. Reheating was found to affect the precipitation of alloy carbonitrides, and the recovery and recrystallization of deformed austenite. In the single-phase region, the lower cooling temperature resulted in better mechanical properties. In normalized steel plate, the interlamellar spacing of pearlite (ISP) increased from 118nm to 165nm after induction reheating. In steel plate quenched with a 70ºC temperature difference, induction reheating reduced the strength difference from 80MPa to 23MPa. Our results provide useful references for optimizing electric induction and improving the uniformity of the mechanical properties of low-alloy steel.