In addition, our previous animal experiment as the first step revealed that, after the drug-intervention for 8 weeks, 2 g/kg/day dose of HKC can significantly attenuate the advanced renal fibrosis in the DN model rats induced by the unilateral nephrectomy combined with the intraperitoneal injection of streptozotocin (STZ) through regulating oxidative stress and p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase/Akt pathways (Mao et al., 2015). Here, AKT1 is linked to renal fibrosis.