Abstract
Background and Aims
Acute kidney injury (AKI) and disease (AKD) are major causes of morbidity and mortality worldwide. Hyperuricemia (HU) is common in patients with impaired kidney function. While there is no doubt that crystalline uric acid (UA) causes acute and chronic UA nephropathy, urolithiasis and kidney stone disease, the pathogenesis of asymptomatic HU in AKI/AKD is incompletely understood. In animal studies, elevated serum UA levels may lead to endothelial dysfunction, renin-angiotensin system activation and oxidative stress. However, such models do not mimic human HU. To overcome this issue, we established a model of AKI/AKD with clinically relevant serum UA levels and hypothesized that asymptomatic HU improves the outcomes after AKI/AKD by restoring metabolic activity and mitochondrial biogenesis in macrophages and tubular epithelial cells.
Method
Alb-creERT2;Glut9lox/lox and Glut9lox/lox control mice were injected with tamoxifen and placed on a chow diet enriched with inosine. Hyperuricemic mice (serum UA ≥7 mg/dL) and mice without HU (serum UA 4-5 mg/dL) underwent uninephrectomy followed by unilateral ischemia-reperfusion (IR) to induce AKI/AKD. Serum and kidneys were collected on day 3 and 14 after AKI/AKD, and kidney function, tubular injury, inflammation, mitochondrial dysfunction, metabolic activity (fatty acid oxidation) and macrophage infiltration were quantified using GFR measurement, immunohistochemistry, colorimetric assays, electron microscopy, RT-PCR and flow cytometry.
Results
We observed an increase in serum UA levels from 7 to 10 mg/dL in hyperuricemic mice on day 3 after IR-induced AKI/AKD that returned to 7 mg/dL after 14 days (Figure left). While there was no difference in GFR between hyperuricemic and mice without HU with AKI/AKD on day 3, we found an improved kidney function in hyperuricemic mice on day 14 (Figure middle). This was associated with significantly less tubular injury and inflammation as well as an increase in the number of infiltrating anti-inflammatory M2-like macrophages as compared to mice without HU. Intrarenal mRNA expression level of the pro-oxidant heme-oxygenase-1 was reduced in hyperuricemic mice. However, the expression of anti-oxidant enzymes (Nrf-1 and Sod) and metabolic genes associated with fatty acid oxidation (Cpt1, Pparg, and Pgc1b) significantly increased as compared to mice without HU 14 days after AKI/AKD. In addition, HU increased the number of phospho-Histone-3 and intact proximal tubules and restored tubular mitochondrial morphology as indicated by an increased mitochondrial aspect ratio (Figure right).
Conclusion
Our data imply that asymptomatic HU improves kidney outcomes after IR-induced AKI/AKD because HU attenuates tubular injury and inflammation. In addition, we found that HU enhances the metabolic activity and anti-inflammatory M2-like macrophage polarization as well as restores mitochondrial biogenesis in tubular epithelial cells, suggesting that HU acts as antioxidant by improving kidney recovery after AKI/AKD.
Berberine Protects Against Palmitate-Induced Apoptosis in Tubular Epithelial Cells by Promoting Fatty Acid Oxidation
