Renal Chemerin Expression is Induced in Models of Hypertensive Nephropathy and Glomerulonephritis and Correlates with Markers of Inflammation and Fibrosis

Abstract

Chemerin and its receptor, chemokine-like receptor 1 (CmklR1), are associated with chemotaxis, inflammation, and endothelial function, especially in metabolic syndrome, coronary heart disease, and hypertension. In humans, circulating chemerin levels and renal function show an inverse relation. So far, little is known about the potential role of chemerin in hypertensive nephropathy and renal inflammation. Therefore, we determined systemic and renal chemerin levels in 2-kidney-1-clip (2k1c) hypertensive and Thy1.1 nephritic rats, respectively, to explore the correlation between chemerin and markers of renal inflammation and fibrosis. Immunohistochemistry revealed a model-specific induction of chemerin expression at the corresponding site of renal damage (tubular vs. glomerular). In both models, renal expression of chemerin (RT-PCR, Western blot) was increased and correlated positively with markers of inflammation and fibrosis. In contrast, circulating chemerin levels remained unchanged. Taken together, these findings demonstrate that renal chemerin expression is associated with processes of inflammation and fibrosis-related to renal damage. However, its use as circulating biomarker of renal inflammation seems to be limited in our rat models.

Kidney Inflammation, Injury and Regeneration

“…This edition is complemented by a series of reviews that deal with the current data situation on other very specific topics like diabetes and diabetic nephropathy [26][27][28], as well as new therapeutic targets [29].In this Special Issue, twelve original research articles are presented that dealt with different questions and the research models used within. The findings of Mocker and co-workers demonstrate that renal chemerin expression, a chemoattractant adipokine, is associated with processes of inflammation and fibrosis during renal damage [2]. The protection of kidney function by attenuating induced renal inflammation was shown with the use of Farnesiferol B, an agonist of a receptor that is expressed by renal tubular epithelial cells [1].…”

“…This Special Issue covers research articles that investigated the molecular mechanisms of inflammation [1][2][3] and injury [4,5] during different renal pathologies and renal regeneration [6], diagnostics using new biomarkers [7][8][9], and the effects of different stimuli like medication or bacterial components on isolated renal cells or in vivo models [10][11][12], all of which were summarized in a very simplified manner. Furthermore, this Special Issue contains important reviews that dealt with the current knowledge of cell death and regeneration [13,14], inflammation [15][16][17][18], and the molecular mechanisms of kidney diseases [19][20][21][22].…”

Huoxue Huatan Decoction Ameliorates Myocardial Ischemia/Reperfusion Injury in Hyperlipidemic Rats via PGC-1α–PPARα and PGC-1α–NRF1–mtTFA Pathways

“…The following antibodies were used: anti-PGC-1α (batch number: ab54481), anti-PPARα (batch number: ab8934), anti-NRF1 (batch number: ab175932), and anti-mtTFA (mitochondrial marker, batch number: ab131607) were provided by Abcam (Cambridge, UK); anti-β-actin (batch number: TA-09) was supplied by Beijing Zhongshan Jinqiao Biotechnology Co., Ltd. (Beijing, China). The mRNA expression levels of PGC-1α, PPARα, NRF1, and mtTFA were measured by real-time PCR (RT-PCR) ( Mocker et al., 2019 ). The specific methods and steps are shown in Part 3 of the Supplementary Materials.…”

Therapeutic Effects of Specialized Pro-Resolving Lipids Mediators on Cardiac Fibrosis via NRF2 Activation

“…However, the expression is upregulated in neutrophils in various diseases, including type 2 diabetes [ 90 ]. The expression of chemerin is associated with inflammatory and fibrotic processes associated with kidney damage [ 91 ]. Serum levels of chemerin were significantly increased in non-alcoholic fatty liver disease patients compared to the controls [ 92 ].…”