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Renal proximal tubular NEMO plays a critical role in ischemic acute kidney injury
Sang Jun Han, Ryan M. Williams, Mihwa Kim, Daniel A. Heller, Vivette D’Agati, Marc Schmidt-Supprian, H. Thomas Lee
Sang Jun Han, Ryan M. Williams, Mihwa Kim, Daniel A. Heller, Vivette D’Agati, Marc Schmidt-Supprian, H. Thomas Lee
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Research Article Inflammation

Renal proximal tubular NEMO plays a critical role in ischemic acute kidney injury

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Abstract

We determined that renal proximal tubular (PT) NF-κB essential modulator (NEMO) plays a direct and critical role in ischemic acute kidney injury (AKI) using mice lacking renal PT NEMO and by targeted renal PT NEMO inhibition with mesoscale nanoparticle–encapsulated NEMO binding peptide (NBP MNP). We subjected renal PT NEMO–deficient mice, WT mice, and C57BL/6 mice to sham surgery or 30 minutes of renal ischemia and reperfusion (IR). C57BL/6 mice received NBP MNP or empty MNP before renal IR injury. Mice treated with NBP MNP and mice deficient in renal PT NEMO were protected against ischemic AKI, having decreased renal tubular necrosis, inflammation, and apoptosis compared with control MNP-treated or WT mice, respectively. Recombinant peptidylarginine deiminase type 4 (rPAD4) targeted kidney PT NEMO to exacerbate ischemic AKI in that exogenous rPAD4 exacerbated renal IR injury in WT mice but not in renal PT NEMO–deficient mice. Furthermore, rPAD4 upregulated proinflammatory cytokine mRNA and NF-κB activation in freshly isolated renal proximal tubules from WT mice but not from PT NEMO–deficient mice. Taken together, our studies suggest that renal PT NEMO plays a critical role in ischemic AKI by promoting renal tubular inflammation, apoptosis, and necrosis.

Authors

Sang Jun Han, Ryan M. Williams, Mihwa Kim, Daniel A. Heller, Vivette D’Agati, Marc Schmidt-Supprian, H. Thomas Lee

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Figure 6

Kidney PT NEMO deletion or selective tubular delivery of NBP MNP attenuates kidney proinflammatory chemokine/cytokine induction after ischemic AKI.

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Kidney PT NEMO deletion or selective tubular delivery of NBP MNP attenua...
With quantitative RT-PCR (A and C), we measured the expression of proinflammatory cytokine and chemokine mRNAs in the kidney (KC, MCP-1, MIP-2, TNF-α, IL-6, and ICAM-1), and with ELISA (B and D), we measured the plasma MCP-1 and MIP-2 levels 24 hours after sham surgery or 30 minutes after renal ischemia. (A and B) NEMOfl/fl WT mice or renal PT NEMO–deficient mice subjected to sham surgery or renal IR. (C and D) C57BL/6 mice injected with control MNP or with 38 mg/kg NBP MNP 6 hours before sham surgery (N = 3) or renal IR (N = 5). Fold increases in proinflammatory mRNAs normalized to GAPDH from quantitative RT-PCR reactions for each indicated mRNA are shown. For statistical analysis, 1-way ANOVA plus Tukey’s post hoc multiple-comparisons test was used to detect significant changes. *P < 0.05 versus WT mice or control MNP-injected mice subjected to sham surgery. #P < 0.05 versus WT mice or control MNP-injected mice subjected to renal IR. Error bars represent 1 SEM. KC, keratinocyte-derived cytokine; MCP-1, monocyte chemoattractive protein-1; MIP-2, macrophage inflammatory protein-2.

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