Human renal mesangial cells are a target for the anti-inflammatory action of 9-cis retinoic acid.

Mesangial cells play an active role in the inflammatory response to glomerular injury. We have studied in cultured human mesangial cells (CHMC) several effects of 9-cis retinoic acid (9-cRA), an activator of both retinoic acid receptors (RARs) and retinoid X receptors (RXRs). 9-cRA inhibited foetal calf serum-induced CHMC proliferation. It also prevented CHMC death induced by the inflammatory mediator H(2)O(2). This preventive effect was not due to any increase in H(2)O(2) catabolism and it persisted even when both catalase and glutathione synthesis were inhibited. Finally, 9-cRA diminished monocyte adhesion to FCS-stimulated CHMC. Interestingly, the retinoid also inhibited in FCS-stimulated cells the protein expression of two mesangial adhesion molecules, fibronectin and osteopontin, but it did not modify the protein expression of intercellular adhesion molecule-1 and vascular adhesion molecule-1. All major RARs and RXRs isotypes were expressed in CHMC regardless of the presence or absence of 9-cRA. Transcripts to RAR-alpha, RAR-beta and RXR-alpha increased after incubation with 9-cRA whereas RXR-gamma was inhibited, suggesting a major role for RARs and RXRs in 9-cRA-anti-inflammatory effects. 9-cRA was toxic only at 50 microM (a concentration 50 - 5000 times higher than required for the effects above). Cell death occurred by apoptosis, whose onset was associated with a pronounced increase in catalase activity and reduced glutathione content, being more effectively induced by all-trans retinoic acid. Modulation of the oxidant/antioxidant balance failed to inhibit apoptosis. We conclude that mesangial cells might be a target for the treatment of inflammatory glomerulopathies with 9-cRA.

Somatostatin increases glucocorticoid binding and signaling in macrophages by blocking the calpain-specific cleavage of Hsp 90.

Somatostatin has direct anti-inflammatory actions and participates in the anti-inflammatory actions of glucocorticoids, but the mechanisms underlying this regulation remain poorly understood. The objective of this study was to evaluate whether somatostatin increases glucocorticoid responsiveness by up-regulating glucocorticoid receptor (GR) expression and signaling. Somatostatin promoted a time- and dose-dependent increase in [(3)H]dexamethasone binding to RAW 264.7 macrophages. Cell exposure to 10 nM somatostatin for 18 h promoted a 2-fold increase in the number of GR sites per cell without significant modification of the affinity. Analysis of GR heterocomplex components demonstrated that somatostatin increased the level of heat shock protein (Hsp) 90, whereas the level of GR remained almost unchanged. The increase in Hsp 90 was associated with a decrease in the cleavage of its carboxyl-terminal domain. Evidence for the involvement of calpain inhibition in this process was obtained by the demonstration that 1) somatostatin induced a dose-dependent decrease in calpain activity and 2) calpain inhibitors, calpain inhibitor I and calpeptin, both abolished the cleavage of Hsp 90 and induced a dose-dependent increase in [(3)H]dexamethasone binding. Increases in glucocorticoid binding after somatostatin treatment were associated with similar increases in the ability of GR to transactivate a minimal promoter containing two glucocorticoid response elements (GRE) and to interfere with the activation of nuclear factor-kappaB (NF-kappaB). Thus, the present findings indicate that somatostatin increases glucocorticoid binding and signaling by limiting the calpain-specific cleavage of GR-associated Hsp 90. This mechanism may represent a novel target for intervention to increase glucocorticoid responsiveness.

Tretinoin prevents age-related renal changes and stimulates antioxidant defenses in cultured renal mesangial cells.

Age-related progressive glomerular sclerosis in the rat is associated with increased expression of tumor necrosis factor-beta1 and increased protein content in the renal cortex, enhanced production of H2O2, in both renal glomeruli and mesangial cells (MCs) cultured from them, as well as augmented glomerular oxidative damage. We have previously shown that tretinoin-treated old male Fischer 344 rats have 30% lower protein content in the renal cortex than control old rats. Here, we report that this effect may depend on the inhibition of the expression of tumor necrosis factor-beta1, a matrigenic cytokine, and osteopontin, a protein with cell adhesive and chemotactic properties. In addition, we show that tretinoin prevents the cytotoxicity of H2O2 in cultured human MCs by increasing both the catalase activity and the reduced glutathione content, which are dose- and time-dependent changes. These increases were not dependent on each other: when these effects were previously inhibited with 3-amino-1,2,4-atriazole or L-buthionine-(S, R)-sulfoximine, respectively, tretinoin still induced the increase of the other noninhibited antioxidant defense. An enhanced gene transcription is the most likely mechanism involved in the tretinoin-induced stimulation of MC antioxidant defense systems because 1) preincubation of MCs with actinomycin D or cycloheximide fully abolished it; 2) tretinoin-incubated MCs showed increased levels of catalase mRNA and gamma-glutamyl-cysteine synthetase (catalytic subunit) mRNA, the latter being the rate-limiting step in de novo reduced glutathione synthesis; and 3) the stability of both mRNA was unchanged by tretinoin. These results show one strategy of protecting renal cells from H2O2-mediated injury based on increasing their antioxidant defenses.