High-glucose and advanced glycosylation end products increased podocyte permeability via PI3-K/Akt signaling

Abstract

Regardless of the underlying disease, the proteinuric condition demonstrates ultrastructural changes in podocytes with retraction and effacement of the highly specialized interdigitating foot processes. To investigate how high-glucose (HG) and advanced glycosylation end products (AGE) induce podocyte phenotypical changes, including quantitative and distributional changes of zonula occludens (ZO)-1 protein and search for the signaling mechanisms, we cultured rat glomerular epithelial cells (GEpC) and mouse podocytes under: (1) normal glucose (5 mM, control); (2) HG (30 mM); (3) AGE-added; or (4) HG plus AGE-added conditions. HG plus AGE increased the permeability of monolayered GEpCs and induced ultrastructural separation between confluent GEpCs. ZO-1 moved to inner actin filament complexes in both AGE- and/or HG by confocal imaging. HG plus AGE-added condition also decreased ZO-1 protein amount and mRNA expression compared to normal glucose or osmotic control conditions. We could also confirm the induction of RAGE (receptor for AGE) and PI3-K/Akt signaling pathway by AGE and HG. In addition, LY294002, a PI3-K inhibitor, could prevent the quantitative and distributional changes of ZO-1 and RAGE and the increased permeability induced by HG and AGE. These findings suggest that diabetic conditions induce the podocyte ZO-1 changes via RAGE and PI3-K/Akt signaling, leading to increased permeability.