PTEN and polyarteritis nodosa: To elucidate the mechanisms of PAN-induced podocyte injury and the potential effects of DEX on the PTEN/PI3K/Akt signaling pathway, we performed Western blot analysis to measure the protein expression of p-Akt, Taking total Akt as the internal reference, the protein expression of p-Akt decreased after podocyte injury induced by PAN, and its expression was significantly lower than in the control group (p<0.05).