Interleukin-20 Induced Cell Death in Renal Epithelial Cells and Was Associated with Acute Renal Failure
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Genes and Immunity (2008) 9, 395–404 & 2008 Macmillan Publishers Limited All rights reserved 1466-4879/08 $30.00 www.nature.com/gene ORIGINAL ARTICLE Interleukin-20 induced cell death in renal epithelial cells and was associated with acute renal failure H-H Li1,2, Y-H Hsu3, C-C Wei1,4, P-T Lee5,6, W-C Chen7 and M-S Chang1,2,3,8 1Institute of Basic Medical Sciences, College of Medicine, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan, Taiwan; 2Department of Medical Research, Chi Mei Medical Center, Tainan, Taiwan; 3Institute of Biopharmaceutical Sciences, College of Medicine, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan, Taiwan; 4Department of Medical Technology, Chung Hwa University of Medical Technology, Tainan, Taiwan; 5Institute of Clinical Medicine, College of Medicine, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan, Taiwan; 6Division of Nephrology, Department of Medicine, Kaohsiung Veterans General Hospital, Kaohsiung & National Yang-Ming University, School of Medicine, Taipei, Taiwan; 7Department of Pathology, College of Medicine, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan, Taiwan and 8Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, College of Medicine, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan, Taiwan Acute renal failure is an abrupt decrease in renal function. Interleukin (IL)-10 inhibits ischemic and cisplatin-induced acute renal failure. We aimed to determine whether IL-20 affects renal tubular epithelial cells and is associated with acute renal failure. We analyzed the expression of IL-20 and its receptor (R) in the kidneys of rats with HgCl2-induced acute renal failure. Reverse transcription-PCR showed upregulated IL-20, and its receptors and immunohistochemical staining showed strongly expressed IL-20 protein in proximal tubular epithelial cells. We analyzed human proximal tubular epithelial (HK-2) cells, which expressed both IL-20 and its receptors. IL-20 specifically induced mitochondria-dependent apoptosis by activating caspase 9 in HK-2 cells. IL-20 also activated c-Jun N-terminal kinase and extracellular signal-regulated kinase 1/2, the downstream signals implicated in the apoptosis of HK-2 cells. Furthermore, IL-20 upregulated the transcripts of transforming growth factor (TGF)-b1, a critical mediator of renal injury. In hypoxic HK-2 cells, IL-20 and IL-22R1 transcripts increased, and IL-20 upregulated IL-1b transcripts. In vivo study further demonstrated that anti-IL-20 antibody reduced the expression of TGF-b1 and IL-1b and the number of damaged tubular cells in the kidneys of rats with acute renal failure. We concluded that IL-20 may be involved in the injury of renal epithelial cells in acute renal failure. Genes and Immunity (2008) 9, 395–404; doi:10.1038/gene.2008.28; published online 22 May 2008 Keywords: IL-20; renal epithelial cell; apoptosis; necrosis Introduction Acute renal failure is a rapid drop in the glomerular filtration rate that leads to the accumulation of nitrogen- Interleukin (IL)-20 belongs to the IL-10 family, which ous waste such as serum creatinine and blood urea includes IL-10, IL-19, IL-20, IL-22, IL-24, and IL-26.1 IL-20 nitrogen (BUN). There are many causes of acute renal is preferentially expressed in five major cell types: failure, but the most common is injury of renal tubular epithelial cells, myoepithelial cells, endothelial cells, epithelial cells by ischemia or cytotoxic regents,8 which macrophages and skeletal muscle cells.2 IL-20 induced resulted in their necrosis or apoptosis.9 There are two signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 activa- major apoptotic pathways in human ischemic acute renal tion. IL-20 directly activated signal transducer and failure. The intrinsic pathway requires translocation of activator of transcription 3 either through IL-20 receptor Bax to the mitochondria followed by the release of (R) complex IL-20R1/IL-20R2 or through IL-20 receptor cytochrome c and activation of caspase 9. The extrinsic complex IL-22R1/IL-20R2.3 IL-20 has potent inflamma- pathway is through the activation of caspase 8.10 4,5 6 tory, angiogenic and chemoattractive characteristics. Although animals with HgCl2-induced nephrotoxicity IL-20 targeted keratinocytes, endothelial cells and syno- provide a well-established animal model for studying vial fibroblasts and was associated with psoriasis,7 acute renal failure, we do not have a detailed under- rheumatoid arthritis6 and atherosclerosis.5 standing of the toxicological mechanism of this model. One possibility is lipid peroxidation associated with the development of mild necrosis in proximal tubule Correspondence: Professor M-S Chang, Department of Biochemi- epithelial cells.11 Another possibility is mercury-induced stry and Molecular Biology, National Cheng Kung University, ion imbalances leading to renal toxicity.12 Moreover, College of Medicine, Tainan 70428, Taiwan. nephrotoxin-reduced renal blood flow resulted in renal E-mail: [email protected] ischemia.13 This work was supported by a grant from Chi Mei Medical Center, Tainan, Taiwan. Interleukin-10 is a pleiotropic cytokine with many Received 24 October 2007; revised 24 January 2008; accepted 20 immunosuppressive effects and a few immunostimula- March 2008; published online 22 May 2008 tory effects.14 Previous studies found that IL-10 IL-20-induced epithelial cell apoptosis H-H Li et al 396 decreased renal injury in animal models treated with and 2 (Figure 2B). We also investigated what kinds of either cisplatin or ischemia.15 IL-10 dramatically inhib- cells expressed rIL-20 in the kidneys of experimental rats. ited both inflammatory, cytotoxic and apoptotic path- rIL-20 was expressed in Henle’s loop and distal tubular ways of renal injury. As IL-20 is a member of the IL-10 epithelial cells in pretreated control rats (Figure 2Ca). family, we investigated whether IL-20 was also involved Two days after experimental rats had been injected with in the pathogenesis of acute renal failure. HgCl2, rIL-20 was strongly expressed in Henle’s loop, distal and proximal tubular epithelial cells (Figure 2Cc), Results Generating HgCl2-induced acute renal failure in rats To confirm that the rats in our animal model had HgCl2- induced acute renal failure, we analyzed their renal function. We collected their sera from day 0 to day 8. Serum creatinine levels began to rise on day 1, peaked on day 2 and returned to baseline on day 8 (Figure 1a). BUN levels began to rise on day 1, peaked on day 4 and returned to baseline on day 8 (Figure 1b). Transcripts of rat (r)IL-20 and its receptors increased in the kidneys of rats with HgCl2-induced acute renal failure To investigate whether IL-20 is involved in acute renal failure, we sacrificed the rats at different time points and compared the transcripts of rIL-20 and its receptors with those of healthy controls. Reverse transcription-PCR (RT- PCR) revealed that rIL-20, rIL-20R1, rIL-20R2 and rIL- 22R1 had increased in the kidneys of the experimental rats (those with acute renal failure) and had peaked on days 1 and 2 (Figure 2A). Protein expression of rIL-20 in the kidneys of experimental rats To confirm that the rIL-20 protein level as well as the transcript level had increased, we analyzed the kidney tissue using immunohistochemical staining with anti-IL- 20 antibodies. The expression levels of rIL-20 protein were upregulated and were strongly stained on days 1 Figure 2 Transcript levels and immunohistochemical staining of IL-20 and its receptors in the kidneys of rats with HgCl2-induced acute renal failure. Experimental rats were sacrificed at different times as indicated (day (D) 1 to D8) after they had been injected with HgCl2 on D0. (A) Total RNA was isolated from their kidneys for RT-PCR analysis with equal amounts of cDNA and primers specific for rat (r)IL-20, (r)IL-20R1, (r)IL-20R2 and (r)IL-22R1 to amplify the transcripts. b-actin was an internal control. Ctrl, control; H12, 12 h after injection of HgCl2.(B) Paraffined sections of kidney tissue were stained using anti-IL-20 monoclonal antibody 7E. The reaction was detected using 3-amino-9-ethylcarbazole chromogen stain (red), and the nuclei were counterstained with hematoxylin (blue) (magnification: Â 400). Experimental rats were killed at different times (as indicated) after they had been injected with HgCl2 on day 0. (C) The rats were killed on (a, b) day 0 and (c, d) Figure 1 Renal function in rats with HgCl2-induced acute renal day 2. In (a) and (c): P, proximal tubular epithelial cells; D, distal failure. (a) Serum creatinine and (b) BUN levels were detected at tubular epithelial cells; H, Henle’s loop. In (b) and (d): (n), different times (as indicated) after they had been injected with infiltrated immune cells; (k), urothelium in the renal pelvis; (m), HgCl2 on day 0. Values are means±s.e. (n ¼ 3/group). *Po0.05 smooth muscle cells. The figures represent similar patterns in three compared with controls (day 0). individual specimens. Genes and Immunity IL-20-induced epithelial cell apoptosis H-H Li et al 397 Figure 3 HK-2 cells expressed the transcripts and proteins of IL-20, IL-20R1, IL-20R2 and IL-22R1. (a) Total RNA was isolated for RT-PCR analysis with primers specific for human (h)IL-20, (h)IL-20R1, (h)IL-20R2 and (h)IL-22R1 to amplify the transcripts. NTC was a non-template control. (b) HK-2 cells were immunocytochemically stained using different monoclonal antibodies (as indicated). Mouse (m)IgG1 was a negative control. The reaction was detected using 3-amino-9-ethylcarbazole chromogen stain (red), and the nuclei were counterstained with hematoxylin (blue). infiltrated immune cells, urothelium in the renal pelvis, immunofluorescence images showed apoptotic cells and smooth muscle cells (Figure 2Cd). (green) (Figure 5c). There are two major apoptotic pathways in human IL-20 and its receptors were expressed in human proximal ischemic acute renal failure; the intrinsic and extrinsic tubular epithelial cells pathways.