Midkine promotes renal fibrosis by stabilizing C/EBPβ to facilitate endothelial-mesenchymal transition

Autor: Cuidi Xu, Juntao Chen, Lifei Liang, Siyue Chen, Xinhao Niu, Ruirui Sang, Cheng Yang, Ruiming Rong
Jazyk: angličtina
Rok vydání: 2024
Předmět:
Zdroj: Communications Biology, Vol 7, Iss 1, Pp 1-15 (2024)
Druh dokumentu: article
ISSN: 2399-3642
DOI: 10.1038/s42003-024-06154-0
Popis: Abstract Numerous myofibroblasts are arisen from endothelial cells (ECs) through endothelial to mesenchymal transition (EndMT) triggered by TGF-β. However, the mechanism of ECs transforms to a different subtype, or whether there exists an intermediate state of ECs remains unclear. In present study, we demonstrate Midkine (MDK) mainly expressed by CD31 + ACTA2+ECs going through partial EndMT contribute greatly to myofibroblasts by spatial and single-cell transcriptomics. MDK is induced in TGF-β treated ECs, which upregulates C/EBPβ and increases EndMT genes, and these effects could be reversed by siMDK. Mechanistically, MDK promotes the binding ability of C/EBPβ with ACTA2 promoter by stabilizing the C/EBPβ protein. In vivo, knockout of Mdk or conditional knockout of Mdk in ECs reduces EndMT markers and significantly reverses fibrogenesis. In conclusion, our study provides a mechanistic link between the induction of EndMT by TGF-β and MDK, which suggests that blocking MDK provides potential therapeutic strategies for renal fibrosis.
Databáze: Directory of Open Access Journals
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