Pentraxin-3 Attenuates Renal Damage in Diabetic Nephropathy by Promoting M2 Macrophage Differentiation

As one of the most important long-term complications of diabetes, diabetic nephropathy (DN) is the major cause of end-stage renal disease and high mortality in diabetic patients. The long pentraxin 3 (Ptx3) is a member of a superfamily of conserved proteins characterized by a cyclic multimeric structure and a conserved C-terminal domain. Several clinical investigations have demonstrated that elevated plasma Ptx3 levels are associated with cardiovascular and chronic kidney diseases (CKD). However, the therapeutic effect of Ptx3 on DN has never been investigated. In our current study, we showed a crucial role for Ptx3 in attenuating renal damage in DN. In our mouse hyperglycemia-induced nephropathy model, Ptx3 treatment showed significantly increased expression of nephrin, acetylated nephrin, and Wilm’s tumor-1 protein (WT-1) when compared with control. The number of CD4⁺ T cells, CD8⁺ T cells, Ly6G⁺ neutrophils, and CD11b⁺ macrophages were all significantly lower in the Ptx3-treated group than that in the control group in DN. The IL-4 and IL-13 levels in the Ptx3-treated group were markedly higher than that in the control group in DN. Correspondingly, the Ptx3-treated group showed increased numbers of Arg1- or CD206-expressing macrophages compared with the control group. Furthermore, inhibition of Ptx3-treated macrophages abrogated the alleviated renal damage induced by Ptx3 treatment. In conclusion, Ptx3 attenuates renal damage in DN by promoting M2 macrophage differentiation.