Nephrology
Abstract
Heritable and acquired diseases of podocytes can result in focal and segmental glomerulosclerosis (FSGS). We modeled FSGS by passively transferring mouse podocyte–specific sheep Abs into BALB/c mice. BALB/c mice deficient in the key complement regulator, decay-accelerating factor (DAF), but not WT or CD59-deficient BALB/c mice developed histological and ultrastructural features of FSGS, marked albuminuria, periglomerular monocytic and T cell inflammation, and enhanced T cell reactivity to sheep IgG. All of these findings, which are characteristic of FSGS, were substantially reduced by depleting CD4+ T cells from Daf–/– mice. Furthermore, WT kidneys transplanted into Daf–/– recipients and kidneys of DAF-sufficient but T cell–deficient Balb/cnu/nu mice reconstituted with Daf–/– T cells developed FSGS. In contrast, DAF-deficient kidneys in WT hosts and Balb/cnu/nu mice reconstituted with DAF-sufficient T cells did not develop FSGS. Thus, we have described what we believe to be a novel mouse model of FSGS attributable to DAF-deficient T cell immune responses. These findings add to growing evidence that complement-derived signals shape T cell responses, since T cells that recognize sheep Abs bound to podocytes can lead to cellular injury and development of FSGS.
Authors
Lihua Bao, Mark Haas, Jeffrey Pippin, Ying Wang, Takashi Miwa, Anthony Chang, Andrew W. Minto, Miglena Petkova, Guilin Qiao, Wen-Chao Song, Charles E. Alpers, Jian Zhang, Stuart J. Shankland, Richard J. Quigg
Abstract
Studies in humans and animal models indicate a key contribution of angiotensin II to the pathogenesis of glomerular diseases. To examine the role of type 1 angiotensin (AT1) receptors in glomerular inflammation associated with autoimmune disease, we generated MRL-Faslpr/lpr (lpr) mice lacking the major murine type 1 angiotensin receptor (AT1A); lpr mice develop a generalized autoimmune disease with glomerulonephritis that resembles SLE. Surprisingly, AT1A deficiency was not protective against disease but instead substantially accelerated mortality, proteinuria, and kidney pathology. Increased disease severity was not a direct effect of immune cells, since transplantation of AT1A-deficient bone marrow did not affect survival. Moreover, autoimmune injury in extrarenal tissues, including skin, heart, and joints, was unaffected by AT1A deficiency. In murine systems, there is a second type 1 angiotensin receptor isoform, AT1B, and its expression is especially prominent in the renal glomerulus within podocytes. Further, expression of renin was enhanced in kidneys of AT1A-deficient lpr mice, and they showed evidence of exaggerated AT1B receptor activation, including substantially increased podocyte injury and expression of inflammatory mediators. Administration of losartan, which blocks all type 1 angiotensin receptors, reduced markers of kidney disease, including proteinuria, glomerular pathology, and cytokine mRNA expression. Since AT1A-deficient lpr mice had low blood pressure, these findings suggest that activation of type 1 angiotensin receptors in the glomerulus is sufficient to accelerate renal injury and inflammation in the absence of hypertension.
Authors
Steven D. Crowley, Matthew P. Vasievich, Phillip Ruiz, Samantha K. Gould, Kelly K. Parsons, A. Kathy Pazmino, Carie Facemire, Benny J. Chen, Hyung-Suk Kim, Trinh T. Tran, David S. Pisetsky, Laura Barisoni, Minolfa C. Prieto-Carrasquero, Marie Jeansson, Mary H. Foster, Thomas M. Coffman
Abstract
The renin-angiotensin system plays a role in the etiology of hypertension and the pathophysiology of cardiac and renal diseases in humans. Ang II is the central product of this system and is involved in regulating immune responses, inflammation, cell growth, and proliferation by acting through Ang II type 1 receptors (AT1 and AT2). Here, we show that targeted disruption of the Agtr1a gene that encodes AT1A results in marked prolongation of life span in mice. Agtr1a–/– mice developed less cardiac and vascular injury, and multiple organs from these mice displayed less oxidative damage than wild-type mice. The longevity phenotype was associated with an increased number of mitochondria and upregulation of the prosurvival genes nicotinamide phosphoribosyltransferase (Nampt) and sirtuin 3 (Sirt3) in the kidney. In cultured tubular epithelial cells, Ang II downregulated Sirt3 mRNA, and this effect was inhibited by an AT1 antagonist. These results demonstrate that disruption of AT1 promotes longevity in mice, possibly through the attenuation of oxidative stress and overexpression of prosurvival genes, and suggests that the Ang II/AT1 pathway may be targeted to influence life span in mammals.
Authors
Ariela Benigni, Daniela Corna, Carla Zoja, Aurelio Sonzogni, Roberto Latini, Monica Salio, Sara Conti, Daniela Rottoli, Lorena Longaretti, Paola Cassis, Marina Morigi, Thomas M. Coffman, Giuseppe Remuzzi
Abstract
Diabetes mellitus is the most common and rapidly growing cause of end-stage renal disease in developed countries. A classic hallmark of early diabetes mellitus includes activation of the renin-angiotensin system (RAS), which may lead to hypertension and renal tissue injury, but the mechanism of RAS activation is elusive. Here we identified a paracrine signaling pathway in the kidney in which high levels of glucose directly triggered the release of the prohypertensive hormone renin. The signaling cascade involved the local accumulation of succinate and activation of the kidney-specific G protein–coupled metabolic receptor, GPR91, in the glomerular endothelium as observed in rat, mouse, and rabbit kidney sections. Elements of signal transduction included endothelial Ca2+, the production of NO and prostaglandin (PGE2), and their paracrine actions on adjacent renin-producing cells. This GPR91 signaling cascade may serve to modulate kidney function and help remove metabolic waste products through renal hyperfiltration, and it could also link metabolic diseases, such as diabetes, or metabolic syndrome with RAS overactivation, systemic hypertension, and organ injury.
Authors
Ildikó Toma, Jung Julie Kang, Arnold Sipos, Sarah Vargas, Eric Bansal, Fiona Hanner, Elliott Meer, János Peti-Peterdi
Abstract
Following injury, the clearance of apoptotic and necrotic cells is necessary for mitigation and resolution of inflammation and tissue repair. In addition to macrophages, which are traditionally assigned to this task, neighboring epithelial cells in the affected tissue are postulated to contribute to this process. Kidney injury molecule–1 (KIM-1 or TIM-1) is an immunoglobulin superfamily cell-surface protein not expressed by cells of the myeloid lineage but highly upregulated on the surface of injured kidney epithelial cells. Here we demonstrate that injured kidney epithelial cells assumed attributes of endogenous phagocytes. Confocal images confirm internalization of apoptotic bodies within KIM-1–expressing epithelial cells after injury in rat kidney tubules in vivo. KIM-1 was directly responsible for phagocytosis in cultured primary rat tubule epithelial cells and also porcine and canine epithelial cell lines. KIM-1 was able to specifically recognize apoptotic cell surface-specific epitopes phosphatidylserine, and oxidized lipoproteins, expressed by apoptotic tubular epithelial cells. Thus, KIM-1 is the first nonmyeloid phosphatidylserine receptor identified to our knowledge that transforms epithelial cells into semiprofessional phagocytes.
Authors
Takaharu Ichimura, Edwin J.P.v. Asseldonk, Benjamin D. Humphreys, Lakshman Gunaratnam, Jeremy S. Duffield, Joseph V. Bonventre
Abstract
Patients with sickle-cell disease (SCD) suffer from tissue damage and life-threatening complications caused by vasoocclusive crisis (VOC). Endothelin receptors (ETRs) are mediators of one of the most potent vasoconstrictor pathways in mammals, but the relationship between vasoconstriction and VOC is not well understood. We report here that pharmacological inhibition of ETRs prevented hypoxia-induced acute VOC and organ damage in a mouse model of SCD. An in vivo ultrasonographic study of renal hemodynamics showed a substantial increase in endothelin-mediated vascular resistance during hypoxia/reoxygenation-induced VOC. This increase was reversed by administration of the dual ETR antagonist (ETRA) bosentan, which had pleiotropic beneficial effects in vivo. It prevented renal and pulmonary microvascular congestion, systemic inflammation, dense rbc formation, and infiltration of activated neutrophils into tissues with subsequent nitrative stress. Bosentan also prevented death of sickle-cell mice exposed to a severe hypoxic challenge. These findings in mice suggest that ETRA could be a potential new therapy for SCD, as it may prevent acute VOC and limit organ damage in sickle-cell patients.
Authors
Nathalie Sabaa, Lucia de Franceschi, Philippe Bonnin, Yves Castier, Giorgio Malpeli, Haythem Debbabi, Ariane Galaup, Micheline Maier-Redelsperger, Sophie Vandermeersch, Aldo Scarpa, Anne Janin, Bernard Levy, Robert Girot, Yves Beuzard, Christophe Leboeuf, Annie Henri, Stéphane Germain, Jean-Claude Dussaule, Pierre-Louis Tharaux
Abstract
Renin, a major regulatory component of the renin-angiotensin system, plays a pivotal role in regulating blood pressure and electrolyte homeostasis and is predominantly expressed in the kidney. Several cAMP-responsive elements have been identified within renin gene promoters. Here, we study how 2 such elements, renin proximal promoter element-2 (RP-2) and overlapping cAMP and negative regulatory elements (CNRE), affect the transcriptional regulation of renin. We generated Tg mice (TgM) bearing BACs containing either WT or mutant RP-2 or CNRE, integrated at single chromosomal loci. Analysis of the TgM revealed that RP-2 was essential to basal promoter activity in the kidney, while renin mRNA levels did not significantly change in any tissues tested in the CNRE mutant TgM. To evaluate the physiological significance of these mutations, we used the BAC Tg to rescue hypotensive Renin-null mutant mice. As predicted, no renin expression was observed in the kidneys of RP-2 mutant/Renin-null compound mice, whereas renin expression in CNRE mutant compound mice was indistinguishable from that in control mice. Consistent with this, RP-2 mutant animals were hypotensive, while CNRE mutants had normal blood pressure. Thus, transcriptional regulation of renin expression via RP-2 but not CNRE is critical for blood pressure regulation by this gene.
Authors
Keiji Tanimoto, Akiko Sugiura, Sumiyo Kanafusa, Tomoko Saito, Naoto Masui, Kazuyuki Yanai, Akiyoshi Fukamizu
Abstract
The inflammatory kidney disease membranoproliferative glomerulonephritis type II (MPGN2) is associated with dysregulation of the alternative pathway of complement activation. MPGN2 is characterized by the presence of complement C3 along the glomerular basement membrane (GBM). Spontaneous activation of C3 through the alternative pathway is regulated by 2 plasma proteins, factor H and factor I. Deficiency of either of these regulators results in uncontrolled C3 activation, although the breakdown of activated C3 is dependent on factor I. Deficiency of factor H, but not factor I, is associated with MPGN2 in humans, pigs, and mice. To explain this discordance, mice with single or combined deficiencies of these factors were studied. MPGN2 did not develop in mice with combined factor H and I deficiency or in mice deficient in factor I alone. However, administration of a source of factor I to mice with combined factor H and factor I deficiency triggered both activated C3 fragments in plasma and GBM C3 deposition. Mouse renal transplant studies demonstrated that C3 deposited along the GBM was derived from plasma. Together, these findings provide what we believe to be the first evidence that factor I–mediated generation of activated C3 fragments in the circulation is a critical determinant for the development of MPGN2 associated with factor H deficiency.
Authors
Kirsten L. Rose, Danielle Paixao-Cavalcante, Jennifer Fish, Anthony P. Manderson, Talat H. Malik, Anne E. Bygrave, Tao Lin, Steven H. Sacks, Mark J. Walport, H. Terence Cook, Marina Botto, Matthew C. Pickering
Abstract
Tight junctions (TJs) play a key role in mediating paracellular ion reabsorption in the kidney. Familial hypomagnesemia with hypercalciuria and nephrocalcinosis (FHHNC) is an inherited disorder caused by mutations in the genes encoding the TJ proteins claudin-16 (CLDN16) and CLDN19; however, the mechanisms underlying the roles of these claudins in mediating paracellular ion reabsorption in the kidney are not understood. Here we showed that in pig kidney epithelial cells, CLDN19 functioned as a Cl– blocker, whereas CLDN16 functioned as a Na+ channel. Mutant forms of CLDN19 that are associated with FHHNC were unable to block Cl– permeation. Coexpression of CLDN16 and CLDN19 generated cation selectivity of the TJ in a synergistic manner, and CLDN16 and CLDN19 were observed to interact using several criteria. In addition, disruption of this interaction by introduction of FHHNC-causing mutant forms of either CLDN16 or CLDN19 abolished their synergistic effect. Our data show that CLDN16 interacts with CLDN19 and that their association confers a TJ with cation selectivity, suggesting a mechanism for the role of mutant forms of CLDN16 and CLDN19 in the development of FHHNC.
Authors
Jianghui Hou, Aparna Renigunta, Martin Konrad, Antonio S. Gomes, Eveline E. Schneeberger, David L. Paul, Siegfried Waldegger, Daniel A. Goodenough
Abstract
Authors
Edward J. Weinman, Rajat S. Biswas, Quihong Peng, Lily Shen, Christina L. Turner, Xiaofei E, Deborah Steplock, Shirish Shenolikar, Rochelle Cunningham
Copyright © 2025 American Society for Clinical Investigation
ISSN: 0021-9738 (print), 1558-8238 (online)