Abstract
Diabetic nephropathy (DN) is a complication of diabetes mellitus (DM) that frequently results in renal disease, and is characterized by a variety of symptoms, including albuminuria. It has been shown that apoptosis of glomerular mesangial cells (MCs) can aggravate albuminuria and contribute to the development of diabetic glomerulosclerosis. Hence, determination of the mechanisms leading to MC apoptosis may help us gain insights into the pathogenesis of DN. As our understanding of the role of high glucose (HG) in MC apoptosis remains elusive, we explored the interplay between X‐box binding protein 1 (XBP1) and MC apoptosis in this study. XBP1 was observed to be downregulated both in vivo and in vitro. Treatment of XBP1‐overexpressing cells with HG resulted in a decrease of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and a suppression of cell apoptosis, concomitant with decreases in cleaved caspase‐3 and Bax. Subsequent analyses demonstrated that XBP1 overexpression inhibited the expression of phosphatase and tensin homolog deleted on chromosome ten (PTEN) and enhanced the activation of AKT in MCs exposed to HG. In addition, XBP1‐induced injuries in MC were reversed by overexpression of PTEN, and XBP1 inhibited apoptosis, which was mediated by the activated PTEN/AKT signaling pathway. Thus, our data indicate that XBP1 can activate the PTEN/AKT signaling pathway, thereby alleviating oxidative stress caused by HG or MC apoptosis. These findings suggest that XBP1 may have potential in the development of treatment methods for DN.
Highlights
Diabetic nephropathy (DN) is a complication of diabetes mellitus (DM) that frequently results in renal disease [1]
X-box binding protein 1 (XBP1) is downregulated in diabetic mouse glomeruli and in mesangial cells (MCs) exposed to high glucose (HG)
To explore the role of XBP1 in DN, real-time PCR of XBP1 was performed using glomeruli from db/db mice and MCs treated with HG in vitro
Summary
Diabetic nephropathy (DN) is a complication of diabetes mellitus (DM) that frequently results in renal disease [1]. DN is characterized by a variety of symptoms such as albuminuria [2]. Many patients have progressive renal injury [3,4], despite the rapid development of therapies for DN [5,6,7]. It is of priority to develop more efficient methods to delay or reverse the progression of DN. It has been recognized that glomerular mesangial cells (MCs) are involved in a variety of events and play critical roles [8,9]. Increasing evidence has confirmed that MC apoptosis contributes to the aggravation of albuminuria and the development of diabetic glomerulosclerosis, which shows a close correlation with DN [10,11,12]. Determination of the possible mechanism that leads to MC apoptosis
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