Autophagy protects from uremic vascular media calcification

  • Chronic kidney disease and diabetes mellitus are associated with extensive media calcification, which leads to increased cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. Here, we investigated the role of autophagy in the pathogenesis of uremic vascular media calcification. DBA/2 mice were fed with high-phosphate diet (HPD) in order to cause vascular calcification. DBA/2 mice on standard chow diet were used as control. In parallel, autophagy and its response to rapamycin, 3-methyladenine (3-MA), and bafilomycin were studied in an in vitro model using mouse vascular smooth muscle cells (MOVAS). DBA/2 mice on HPD developed severe vascular media calcification, which is mirrored in vitro by culturing MOVAS under calcifying conditions. Both, in vitro and in vivo, autophagy significantly increased in MOVAS under calcifying conditions and in aortas of HPD mice, respectively. Histologically, autophagy was located to the aortic Tunica media, but also vascular endothelial cells, and was found to continuously increase during HPD treatment. 3-MA as well as bafilomycin blocked autophagy in MOVAS and increased calcification. Vice versa, rapamycin treatment further increased autophagy and resulted in a significant decrease of vascular calcification in vitro and in vivo. Rapamycin reduced Runx2 transcription levels in aortas and MOVAS to control levels, whereas it increased α-smooth muscle actin and Sm22α transcription in MOVAS to control levels. Furthermore, rapamycin-treated HPD mice survived significantly longer compared to HPD controls. These findings indicate that autophagy is an endogenous response of vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMC) to protect from calcification in uremia. Induction of autophagy by rapamycin protects cells and mice from uremic media calcification possibly by inhibiting osteogenic transdifferentiation of VSMC.

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Author:Bianca Frauscher, Alexander H. Kirsch, Corinna Schabhüttl, Kerstin Schweighofer, Máté Kétszeri, Marion Pollheimer, Duska Dragun, Katrin SchröderORCiDGND, Alexander RosenkranzGND, Kathrin Eller, Philipp Eller
URN:urn:nbn:de:hebis:30:3-477372
DOI:https://doi.org/10.3389/fimmu.2018.01866
ISSN:1664-3224
Pubmed Id:https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30154792
Parent Title (English):Frontiers in immunology
Publisher:Frontiers Media
Place of publication:Lausanne
Contributor(s):Hans-Joachim Anders
Document Type:Article
Language:English
Year of Completion:2018
Date of first Publication:2018/08/14
Publishing Institution:Universitätsbibliothek Johann Christian Senckenberg
Release Date:2018/10/25
Tag:chronic kidney disease; hydroxyapatite crystals; inflammation; phosphate; rapamycin; vascular smooth muscle cells
Volume:9
Issue:Art. 1866
Page Number:14
First Page:1
Last Page:14
Note:
Copyright: © 2018 Frauscher, Kirsch, Schabhüttl, Schweighofer, Kétszeri, Pollheimer, Dragun, Schröder, Rosenkranz, Eller and Eller. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
HeBIS-PPN:439099358
Institutes:Medizin / Medizin
Dewey Decimal Classification:6 Technik, Medizin, angewandte Wissenschaften / 61 Medizin und Gesundheit / 610 Medizin und Gesundheit
Sammlungen:Universitätspublikationen
Licence (German):License LogoCreative Commons - Namensnennung 4.0