Expression and regulation of adrenomedullin in renal glomerular podocytes

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bbrc.2005.02.142Get rights and content

Abstract

Adrenomedullin (AM) is postulated to exert organ-protective effects. It is expressed in the renal glomeruli, but its roles in the glomerular podocytes have been poorly elucidated. In the present study, we investigated the expression and regulation of AM in recently established conditionally immortalized mouse podocyte cell line in vitro and podocyte injury model in vivo. The cultured differentiated podocytes expressed AM mRNA and secreted measurable amount of AM. AM secretion from the podocytes was increased by H2O2, hypoxia, puromycin aminonucleoside (PAN), albumin overload, and TNF-α. Real-time RT-PCR analysis revealed that AM mRNA expression in the podocytes was enhanced by PAN and TNF-α, both of which were suppressed by mitochondrial antioxidants. Furthermore, AM expression was upregulated in the glomerular podocytes of PAN nephrosis rats. These results indicated that AM expression in the podocytes was upregulated by stimuli or condition relevant to podocyte injury, suggesting its potential role in podocyte pathophysiology.

Section snippets

Materials and methods

Cell culture of mouse podocytes. We used conditionally immortalized mouse podocyte cell line established by Mundel et al. [7]. In brief, this cell line was generated from renal glomeruli of transgenic mice harboring thermo-sensitive mutant of the SV-40 large T antigen, which is under the control of the H-2Kb-promoter whose activity is inducible by γ-interferon. The podocyte lineage was selected as WT-1-positive cells. To propagate, podocytes between passage 14 and 20 were cultivated in RPMI

AM mRNA was expressed in cultured podocytes

The podocyte cell line, when cultured under permissive condition, proliferated with undifferentiated cobblestone-like appearance (Fig. 1A). Under nonpermissive condition, on the other hand, most of the cells became growth arrested and acquired characteristics of differentiated podocytes, such as cell process elongation by day 7 (Fig. 1B).

We first examined whether AM mRNA was expressed in our podocyte cell line cultivated under nonpermissive condition for 10–14 days. RT-PCR analysis showed that

Discussion

In the present study, we demonstrated that AM is synthesized in the glomerular podocyte cell line established by Mundel et al. AM expression is upregulated in response to oxidative stress, hypoxia, PAN, protein overload, and TNF-α in the cultured podocytes in vitro, and in the glomerular podocytes of PAN nephrosis rats in vivo. These modulatory patterns of AM in response to various stimuli suggest that AM is involved in the podocyte damage.

This is the first paper indicating that AM is expressed

References (44)

  • T. Eto

    A review of the biological properties and clinical implications of adrenomedullin and proadrenomedullin N-terminal 20 peptide (PAMP), hypotensive and vasodilating peptides

    Peptides

    (2001)
  • M. Mukoyama et al.

    Role of adrenomedullin and its receptor system in renal pathophysiology

    Peptides

    (2001)
  • P. Mundel et al.

    Podocyte biology and response to injury

    J. Am. Soc. Nephrol.

    (2002)
  • H. Pavenstadt et al.

    Cell biology of the glomerular podocyte

    Physiol. Rev.

    (2003)
  • W. Kriz

    Progressive renal failure—inability of podocytes to replicate and the consequences for development of glomerulosclerosis

    Nephrol. Dial. Transplant.

    (1996)
  • T. Weinstein et al.

    Rat glomerular epithelial cells in culture express characteristics of parietal, not visceral, epithelium

    J. Am. Soc. Nephrol.

    (1992)
  • H. Holthofer et al.

    Rat glomerular cells do not express podocytic markers when cultured in vitro

    Lab. Invest.

    (1991)
  • E. Yaoita et al.

    Visceral epithelial cells in rat glomerular cell culture

    Eur. J. Cell Biol.

    (1995)
  • M. Kretzler et al.

    Podocyte damage is a critical step in the development of glomerulosclerosis in the uninephrectomised-desoxycorticosterone hypertensive rat

    Virchows Arch.

    (1994)
  • M. Sharma et al.

    Documentation of angiotensin II receptors in glomerular epithelial cells

    Am. J. Physiol.

    (1998)
  • T.B. Huber et al.

    Catecholamines modulate podocyte function

    J. Am. Soc. Nephrol.

    (1998)
  • M. Nagase et al.

    Role of natriuretic peptide receptor type C in Dahl salt-sensitive hypertensive rats

    Hypertension

    (1997)
  • Cited by (25)

    • Ezetimibe alone or in combination with pitavastatin prevents kidney dysfunction in 5/6 nephrectomized rats fed high-cholesterol

      2012, Metabolism: Clinical and Experimental
      Citation Excerpt :

      First-strand complementary DNA was synthesized with a TaqMan High Capacity cDNA Reverse Transcription Kit. Gene expression was determined by real-time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction using TaqMan Gene Expression Assays (Life Technologies, Carlsbad, CA) and an ABI PRISM 7000 Sequence Detection System (Life Technologies) on endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS; assays ID, Rn02132634_s1), transforming growth factor–β (TGF-β; assays ID, Rn00821748_g1), and connective tissue growth factor (CTGF; assays ID, Rn01537278_g1) according to the procedure described previously [29,30]. Analysis of variance, followed by post hoc Tukey-Kramer multiple comparison, was used to test the significance of differences between groups.

    • Bradykinin receptor 1 activation exacerbates experimental focal and segmental glomerulosclerosis

      2011, Kidney International
      Citation Excerpt :

      Here, TIMP-1, an inhibitor of MMP-9, was upregulated in adriamycin-treated animals, whereas DALBK diminished its expression. Shin et al.38 showed that adriamycin accumulates in the glomerulus, and its delayed clearance causes a continuous noxious insult associated with reactive oxygen species release that consequently leads to podocyte damage.39–41 Corroborating this finding, we observed upregulation of heme oxygenase-1 in adriamycin-treated mice; however, this marker was not upregulated by DALBK in our work.

    View all citing articles on Scopus
    View full text