Virchows Archiv

, Volume 448, Issue 4, pp 485–492 | Cite as

Upregulation of nestin, vimentin, and desmin in rat podocytes in response to injury

  • Jun Zou
  • Eishin Yaoita
  • Yusuke Watanabe
  • Yutaka Yoshida
  • Masaaki Nameta
  • Huiping Li
  • Zhenyun Qu
  • Tadashi Yamamoto
Original Article
First Online:
Received:
Accepted:

Abstract

Podocytes in the renal glomerulus express unusual intermediate filament (IF) proteins for epithelial cells. To gain insight into the role of IF proteins in podocytes, we investigated the expression of nestin, vimentin, and desmin in puromycin aminonucleoside (PAN) nephrosis. A Western blot analysis for nestin, vimentin, and desmin demonstrated their exclusive expression in glomeruli and showed their increase in expression in nephrotic glomeruli. Immunolocalization studies showed nestin and vimentin to be located predominantly in the podocytes in both normal and nephrotic glomeruli and that enhancement of desmin staining only occurred in podocytes. A ribonuclease protection assay showed high levels of vimentin and nestin expression in normal glomeruli and an upregulation of all three IF transcripts in nephrotic glomeruli. One day after the PAN injection, however, the vimentin transcripts were found to already have significantly increased, whereas those of nestin or desmin showed no such increase. These findings indicate that podocytes express three IF proteins, namely, vimentin, desmin, and nestin, which are differentially regulated in response to injury. An upregulation of IF proteins may increase the mechanical stability of cells, thus enabling podocytes to undergo morphological changes on the tensile glomerular capillary wall.

Keywords

Kidney Intermediate filament Nestin Vimentin Injury 
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Notes

Acknowledgement

This work was supported in part by a Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C) from the Japanese Ministry for Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (No. 17590822).

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Copyright information

© Springer-Verlag 2006

Authors and Affiliations

  • Jun Zou
    • 1
  • Eishin Yaoita
    • 1
  • Yusuke Watanabe
    • 2
  • Yutaka Yoshida
    • 1
  • Masaaki Nameta
    • 3
  • Huiping Li
    • 1
  • Zhenyun Qu
    • 3
  • Tadashi Yamamoto
    • 1
  1. 1.Department of Structural Pathology, Institute of NephrologyNiigata University Graduate School of Medical and Dental SciencesNiigataJapan
  2. 2.Department of NephrologySaitama Medical CollegeSaitamaJapan
  3. 3.Cooperative Laboratory of Electron MicroscopyNiigata UniversityNiigataJapan

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