American journal of physiology. Renal physiology
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Am. J. Physiol. Renal Physiol. · Aug 2013
TGF-β/Smad3 activates mammalian target of rapamycin complex-1 to promote collagen production by increasing HIF-1α expression.
Transforming growth factor (TGF)-β is a major mediator of kidney fibrosis. In the past decade it was recognized that, besides canonical Smad signaling, many other signaling pathways participate in the process of TGF-β-induced fibrogenesis. One such pathway involves mammalian target of rapamycin complex (mTORC)1. ⋯ Pretreatment with rapamycin or shRNA for a regulatory molecule of mTORC1, Raptor, reduced TGF-β-induced COL1A2-luc activity and collagen I protein expression. mTORC1 inhibition also prevented the TGF-β-stimulated increase in both hypoxia-responsive element (HRE) activity and HIF-1α protein expression, while activation of mTORC1 by active Rheb increased basal but not TGF-β-induced HRE activity. shRNA to Smad3 reduced HRE activity, while overexpression of Smad3 increased HIF-1α protein expression and activity in an mTORC1-dependent manner. Lastly, overexpression of HIF-1α bypassed the inhibitory effect of mTORC1 blockade on collagen expression. These results suggest that Smad3/mTORC1 interaction to promote HIF-1 expression is a key step in normoxic kidney fibrogenesis.
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Am. J. Physiol. Renal Physiol. · Aug 2013
Sestrin-2 and BNIP3 regulate autophagy and mitophagy in renal tubular cells in acute kidney injury.
Autophagy is a cellular recycling process induced in response to many types of stress. However, little is known of the signaling pathways that regulate autophagy during acute kidney injury (AKI). Bcl-2/adenovirus E1B 19 kDa-interacting protein (BNIP)3 and sestrin-2 are the target proteins of hypoxia-inducible factor (HIF)-1α and p53, respectively. ⋯ Overexpression of BNIP3 or sestrin-2 in these cells induced light chain 3 expression and formation of autophagosomes. Interestingly, BNIP3-induced autophagosomes were mainly localized to the mitochondria, suggesting that this protein selectively induces mitophagy. These observations demonstrate that autophagy is induced in renal tubules by at least two independent pathways involving p53-sestrin-2 and HIF-1α-BNIP3, which may be activated by different types of stress to protect the renal tubules during AKI.
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Am. J. Physiol. Renal Physiol. · Aug 2013
High NaCl-induced inhibition of PTG contributes to activation of NFAT5 through attenuation of the negative effect of SHP-1.
Activation of the transcription factor NFAT5 by high NaCl involves changes in phosphorylation. By siRNA screening, we previously found that protein targeting to glycogen (PTG), a regulatory subunit of protein phosphatase1 (PP1), contributes to regulation of high NaCl-induced NFAT5 transcriptional activity. The present study addresses the mechanism involved. ⋯ Mutation of SHP-1-S591 to alanine, which cannot be phosphorylated, increases inhibition of NFAT5 by SHP-1. Thus high NaCl reduces the stimulatory effect of PTG and PP1γ on SHP-1, which in turn reduces the inhibitory effect of SHP-1 on NFAT5. Our findings add to the known functions of PTG, which was previously recognized only for its glycogenic activity.