Galectin-3 regulates proliferation of glomerular mesangial cells under high glucose condition

• Main Authors: LIN Ziyue, ZHANG Panyang, CHONG Xinyu
• Format: Article
• Language: zho
• Published: Editorial Office of Journal of Third Military Medical University 2020-10-01
• Series: Di-san junyi daxue xuebao
• Subjects: diabetic nephropathy; galectin-3; glomerular mesangial cells; proliferation; mek
• Online Access: http://aammt.tmmu.edu.cn/Upload/rhtml/202004076.htm

Objective To investigate the effect and underlying mechanism of galectin-3 (Gal-3) on the proliferation of mesangial cells (MCs) cultured under high glucose condition. Methods Real-time quantitative PCR (qRT-PCR) was used to detect the expression of Gal-3 in normal and diabetic nephropathy (DN) mouse kidney tissues and MCs under low and high glucose conditions. Gal-3 overexpression plasmid and siRNA were constructed and synthesized. qRT-PCR and Western blotting were used to detect the transfection efficiency. And Gal-3 overexpression plasmid or siRNA was transfected into MCs under low and high glucose condition, respectively. Further, 5-Ethynyl-2′-deoxyuridine (EdU) was used to detect the cell proliferation ability, and Western blot assay was used to measure the expression of Mek and phosphorylated Mek after overexpression or downexpression of Gal-3 in MCs. Results qRT-PCR results showed that Gal-3 expression was significantly higher in the kidney tissues of DN mice than those of the normal mice(P < 0.01), and so was the expression level in MCs under high glucose condition when compared with the cells under low glucose condition (P < 0.01). In addition, overexpression of Gal-3 resulted in enhanced proliferation ability of MCs (P < 0.01) and the up-regulation of phosphorylated Mek (P < 0.01). While, Gal-3 silencing induced the opposite results in the proliferation ability (P < 0.01) and phosphorylated Mek expression (P < 0.001). Conclusion Gal-3 is significantly up-regulated in DN, and may affect the proliferation of MCs by regulating Mek phosphorylation, and thus plays an important regulatory role in DN.