Adiponectin regulates albuminuria and podocyte function in mice
J. Clin. Invest. Kumar Sharma, et al. 118:1645 doi:10.1172/JCI32691 [Go to this article.]

Figure 4
AMPK activity is increased by adiponectin and regulates podocyte permeability. (A and B) Treatment of podocytes with 3 μg/ml gAd for 24 h increased AMPK activity in podocytes cultured in normal glucose (NG; 5.5 mM d-glucose) and high glucose (HG; 25 mM d-glucose), as demonstrated by confocal microscopy (A) and immunoblotting (B). AMPK activity was assessed with antibodies specific for the p-AMPKα subunit. Total AMPKα was measured with antibody for AMPKα as a loading control (B). Images are representative confocal photographs and immunoblots from 5 separate experiments. (C) Quantitation of P-AMPKα/AMPK from immunoblots in B (n = 5). Values are mean ± SEM. *P < 0.05 versus normal glucose; **P < 0.05 versus high glucose alone. (D) Albumin permeability was decreased by the AMPK activator AICAR (1 mM) and increased by the AMPK inhibitor ARA (n = 5 per group). The effect of adiponectin to reduce permeability was also blocked by ARA. Cells were treated as described in Figure 3A and Methods. Values (mean ± SEM) are presented as percent of control. *P < 0.01 versus control; **P < 0.001 versus gAd alone.