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J. Biol. Chem., Vol. 281, Issue 38, 28048-28057, September 22, 2006
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12
1

3
From the
Department of Medicine, Division of Nephrology, University of Washington School of Medicine, Seattle, Washington 98195 and the
Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Basic Sciences Division, Seattle, Washington 98109
Received for publication, December 15, 2006 , and in revised form, June 26, 2006.
| ABSTRACT |
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| INTRODUCTION |
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Our data show that within the kidney cyclin I is specifically expressed by glomerular podocytes. These are terminally differentiated, post-mitotic, highly specialized epithelial cells, which serve as the major barrier to prevent the excretion of serum proteins into the urine. The inability to replace podocytes lost by apoptosis is thought to underlie the subsequent development of glomerulosclerosis and progressive renal impairment, regardless of the initiating injury (614). Given their limited regenerative capacity, prevention of podocyte apoptosis is of critical importance for the maintenance of normal renal function.
The restricted expression of cyclin I to the renal podocyte suggested that it might play a specialized biological role in these cells. We describe here the characterization of cyclin I expression in the normal kidney and the first analysis of its function using cyclin I knock-out mice. We report that cyclin I regulates podocyte apoptosis, both in vitro and in a model of glomerular disease in vivo. Previous work has shown that p21Cip1/Waf1 has an important role in preventing podocyte apoptosis (15), and we show here that cyclin I may control p21Cip1/Waf1 abundance by regulating its stability. We propose a role for cyclin I in protecting terminally differentiated cells from apoptosis.
| EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURES |
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genomic library and sequenced. The sequencing data were then assembled into contigs4 using Sequencher software. The knock-in vector was constructed by cloning a 1.3-kb SpeI-SacI fragment that encompasses the intron sequence immediately 5' to the second exon of cyclin I as the upstream arm and a 4.5-kb BstEII-HindIII fragment that contained a portion of the coding region of the last exon of cyclin I and intron sequence cloned into the SA-
gal vector as the downstream arm. The vector was linearized with ScaI and electroporated into XY AK7 ES cells. The ES cells were then selected in 400 µg/ml G418. ES cell colonies with homologous recombination were identified by PCR amplification of a 2-kb fragment with a primer from the SA-
gal gene (SARev, 5'-CATCAAGGAAACCCTGGACTACTG-3') and a primer from cyclin I genomic DNA just 5' to the SpeI site (1BR+, 5'-TAGGACATGGGTCTCAGC-3'). PCR reactions were performed for 40 cycles (93 °C for 30 s, 57 °C for 30 s, 65 °C for 2 min). Proper recombination within the cyclin I locus was also confirmed by Southern blot of PstI digested genomic DNA using a probe designed with cyclin I sequences not contained within the original knock-in vector. ES cells were introduced into 5 days post-coitus C57/B6J mouse embryos. Germ line transmission, as determined by PCR, was identified in chimeric males obtained from two independent clones that were used for subsequent experiments. The wild-type allele of cyclin I was amplified using the 2718 oligonucleotide (5'-GGTGTGACTCTATGGTATTTC-3') and the 1BR primer described above using the same PCR conditions.
Staining of Embryos for
-Galactosidase Activity
Day 13 embryos were washed twice in PBS and then fixed in 2% formaldehyde, 0.2% gluteraldehyde in PBS containing 0.1% sodium deoxycholate and 0.2% Nonidet P-40 (Nonidet P-40) for 2 h at 4 °C. Fixed embryos were washed for 15 min three times in PBS. Embryos were incubated for 68 h at room temperature in staining solution (2.5 mM ferrocyanide, 2.5 mM ferricyanide, 2 mM MgCl2, 0.1% sodium deoxycholate, 0.2% Nonidet P-40 in PBS) containing 1 mg/ml 5-bromo-4-chloro-3-indolyl-
-D-galactopyranoside (diluted from a 40x stock solution in N,N-dimethylformamide). After staining, embryos were extensively washed in PBS and photographed.
Cell Culture
Mouse Embryonic FibroblastsMouse embryonic fibroblasts (MEFs) were isolated from 13-day-old embryos and maintained using standard procedures. To induce quiescence, confluent MEFs were washed twice with phosphate-buffered saline (PBS) and cultured in Dulbecco's modified Eagle's medium with 0.1% fetal bovine serum for 24 h. Quiescent cells were trypsinized, replated at low density, and stimulated with complete medium containing 10% fetal bovine serum to enter the cell cycle. Entry into S phase was monitored by estimating the DNA content of propidium iodide-stained nuclei using fluorescence-activated flow cytometry or by bromodeoxyuridine incorporation.
Mouse PodocytesFemale cyclin I / mice were crossed with a male H-2Kb-tsA58 transgenic mouse (ImmortoMouse; Jackson Laboratory, Bar Harbor, ME) and the F1 generation intercrossed. Conditionally immortalized mouse podocytes were derived from cyclin I +/+ and / littermates as described previously (16). Briefly, proliferating podocytes were grown on collagen I (BD Biosciences, Bedford, MA) at 33 °C in medium supplemented with recombinant mouse
-interferon (10 units/ml; Coulter, Hialeah, FL) to promote expression of the thermosensitive SV40 large T antigen. To induce quiescence and the differentiated phenotype, cells were grown at 37 °C in the same medium with no
-interferon for 14 days and characterized by their expression of podocyte specific proteins. A similar strategy was used to generate p21Waf1/Cip1 / podocytes.
RT-PCR
The expression of cyclin I by cultured mouse podocytes was determined by RT-PCR. cDNA was amplified in a semiquantitative fashion using primer sets specific for the mouse cyclin I gene (forward primer, 5'-ATGAAGTTTCCAGGACCTTTG-3'; reverse primer, 5'-CTACATGACAGAAACAGGCTG-3'). The PCR reaction was performed as follows: 94 °C for 2 min, followed by 30 cycles of 94 °C for 1 min, 56 °C for 1 min, and 72 °C for 1 min. PCR products were resolved on a 2% agarose gel and normalized to expression of glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase.
Western Blot Analysis
Total cell protein was extracted using TG buffer (1% Triton, 10% glycerol, 20 mM HEPES, 100 mM NaCl) with protease inhibitors (Roche Applied Science). Protein concentration was determined by the BCA protein assay (Pierce).
For Western blot analysis, 1540 µg of protein extracts were separated under reduced conditions on 15% SDS-polyacrylamide gels and transferred to polyvinylidene difluoride membrane (Immobilon-P; Millipore, Bedford, MA). Membranes were incubated overnight at 4 °C with the following commercially available primary antibodies: mouse monoclonal anti-p21 (clone SX118, PharMingen), anti-human p21 (Santa Cruz Biotechnology, Santa Cruz, CA), anti-p27 (BD Transduction Laboratories, Lexington, KY), anti-p53 (clone PAb421, Oncogene Research Products, San Diego, CA), anti-glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (Abcam, Cambridge, MA), anti-Grb2 (Santa Cruz Biotechnology), and anti-actin (Chemicon International Inc., Temecula, CA). The cyclin I antibody was developed in house. Cyclin I was subcloned into pET16b (Novagen, Madison, WI) as a full-length coding sequence or the sequence encoding the amino terminus (amino acids 152). Protein inductions were performed in BL21 pLysS bacteria and purified under denaturing conditions with 8 M urea on nickel-nitrilotriacetic acid (Qiagen, Valencia, CA). Antibodies to the two cyclin I proteins were raised in New Zealand White rabbits and affinity-purified using antigen immobilized on nickel-nitrilotriacetic acid. Antibody was eluted from the column using 4 M MgCl2 and dialyzed extensively against PBS at 4 °C.
Proteins were visualized using the chromagen 5-bromo-4-chloro-3-indolyl phosphate/nitro blue tetrazolium (Sigma) or ECL reagents (Pierce).
Induction of Apoptosis in Vitro
Apoptosis was induced in 8090% confluent, differentiated cyclin I +/+ and /, and p21Cip1/Waf1 / podocytes grown in 24-well plates (Primaria, VWR, West Chester, PA). Each experimental condition was carried out in quadruplicate, and experiments were performed at least three times. Apoptosis was detected as described below. Three apoptotic stimuli were used. (i) uv-C irradiation, 025 J/m2 using a Hoefer cross-linker (Stratagene, La Jolla, CA). Cells were irradiated in the absence of media and apoptosis assessed after 6 h. Protein was harvested from similarly treated cells for Western blot analysis. (ii) Puromycin aminonucleoside (PAN) has previously been shown to induce podocyte apoptosis in culture (17, 18) and induces proteinuria and apoptosis in vivo (10, 19). Cells were cultured in the presence of 0100 µg/ml PAN (Sigma) and apoptosis measured after 24 h. (iii) Anti-podocyte antibody induces podocyte injury in vitro and in vivo and as described below was also used to induce experimental glomerulonephritis in mice. Cells were exposed to media containing 05% nephrotoxic or normal sheep serum for 30 min at 37 °C. The cells were then washed in HBSS and fresh media applied. Apoptosis was assessed after 16 h. In separate experiments, cells were fixed overnight in ice-cold methanol prior to immunofluorescence to confirm equal antibody binding.
Detection of Apoptosis
At the end of each experiment, Hoechst 33342 (Sigma) at a final concentration of 10 mM was added to each well. At least 400 cells were counted for each well, and the number of apoptotic nuclei expressed as a percentage of the total. Apoptosis was also assessed by a caspase 3 activity assay according to the manufacturer's instructions (BD Biosciences).
Retroviral Transduction of Cyclin I / Podocytes
pBabe vectors encoding cyclin I, wild-type human p21Cip1/Waf1, lysineless (
K) human p21Cip1/Waf1, or GFP were transfected into Phoenix packaging cells to generate retrovirus. The retrovirus-containing media were harvested and filtered onto 50% confluent proliferating, undifferentiated cyclin I / podocytes. Following 48-h selection with puromycin (2.5 µg/ml), cells were passaged and transferred to growth restrictive conditions. Apoptotic susceptibility following uv-C irradiation was assessed as above.
Animal Models
Crescentic GlomerulonephritisGlomerulonephritis was induced in 1012-week-old male cyclin I +/+ and / matched control mice by the intraperitoneal injection of sheep anti-rabbit glomerular antibody (0.5 ml/20 g of body weight) on 2 consecutive days, as described previously (20, 21). We have previously characterized this model in detail and demonstrated that the observed pathological changes are not due to the presence of infiltrating cells.
Cyclin I +/+ and / mice (n > 6/group) were sacrificed on days 7 and 14 after the second injection of anti-glomerular antibody. Urine was collected from each animal before disease induction and just prior to sacrifice for quantification of proteinuria by the sulfosalicylic acid method. Blood was collected at sacrifice to measure serum creatinine (Sigma kit number 555-A). Renal tissue was embedded in OCT compound (Miles, Elkart, IN) and frozen at 70 °C or fixed in either 10% neutral buffered formalin or methyl-Carnoy's solution (60% methanol, 30% chloroform, 10% acetic acid) for immunostaining (see below).
Unilateral Ureteric Obstruction (UUO)Experimental UUO was performed on anesthetized 810-week-old cyclin I +/+ and / animals (n = 8/group) by ligation of the left ureter at the ureteropelvic junction (22). Mice were sacrificed at day 7 and kidneys fixed as above for histological assessment. The contralateral non-obstructed kidney served as control.
Immunostaining
Indirect immunoperoxidase staining was performed on formalin or methyl-Carnoy's fixed tissue with antibodies against
-galactosidase (1:1000 dilution, Abcam), WT-1 (sc192, 1:1000 dilution, Santa Cruz Biotechnology), and fibronectin (1:500 dilution, Chemicon International Inc.). Measurement of apoptosis was by the TUNEL assay, performed as described previously (23). Apoptosis was also quantified in the thymus of unmanipulated cyclin I +/+ and / mice.
Frozen sections were rehydrated in PBS and stained with fluorescein isothiocyanate-conjugated antibodies to sheep IgG (Cappel, Durham, NC), to ensure comparable glomerular antibody deposition between the cyclin I +/+ and / mice. The autologous phase of the disease was similarly assessed by immunostaining with a fluorescein isothiocyanate-conjugated antibody to mouse IgG (Cappel). Double immunostaining for
-galactosidase (goat polyclonal antibody, 1:100 dilution, Biogenesis, Kingston, NH) and WT-1 (sc192 rabbit polyclonal antibody, 1:100 dilution, Santa Cruz Biotechnology) was performed. After washing, sections were incubated with a biotinylated goat anti-rabbit IgG (1:500 dilution, Vector laboratories, Burlingame, CA). Binding was detected using Alexa Fluor 488-conjugated donkey anti-goat IgG (1:100 dilution; Molecular Probes, Eugene, OR) and Alexa Fluor 594 streptavidin (Molecular Probes).
Assessment of Glomerulosclerosis
Glomerulosclerosis was determined on periodic acid Schiff-stained sections for a minimum of 50 glomeruli in each animal and was graded quantitatively based on the percentage of glomerular tuft area involvement as follows: grade 1 = <25%; grade 2 = 2550%; grade 3 = 5075%; grade 4 = 75100%. Slides were viewed using a Leica confocal microscope (Leica, Deerfield, IL) using either bright-field or appropriate epifluorescent optics.
Statistical Analysis
All results are expressed as mean + S.D. Statistical significance was evaluated using the Student's t test.
| RESULTS |
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-galactosidase gene (Fig. 1A). Staining of day 13 embryos for
-galactosidase activity confirmed expression of the transgene (Fig. 1B). Viable cyclin I / mice were obtained from intercrosses of cyclin I +/ heterozygotes at the normal Mendelian frequency of 25% (142/512) and showed no apparent developmental defects. The genotype of the offspring was confirmed by Southern blotting (Fig. 1C). Protein extracts from various tissues from one month old pups underwent Western blot analysis, and highest expression was seen in the brain, followed by testis (data not shown), although cyclin I / mice were fertile and displayed no behavioral abnormalities. The lack of cyclin I protein expression in the homozygous knock-out mice was confirmed by immunoprecipitation and Western blotting with an anti-cyclin I antibody (Fig. 1D). To test whether cyclin I / cells had detectable defects in cell proliferation, we isolated MEFs from 13-day-old embryos (Fig. 1E). Cyclin I / MEFs responded to serum stimulation and progressed through the cell cycle at the same rate as control MEFs (Fig. 1F). Population doubling times were also unaffected by the absence of cyclin I (data not shown). Taken together, these results suggested that cyclin I was not required for cell proliferation, and its abundant expression in some post-mitotic cells suggested that it may have a role distinct from the cell cycle.
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-galactosidase to determine the pattern of cyclin I expression in the kidney, as this gene has been introduced in place of cyclin I. As expected, no
-galactosidase expression was detected in the cyclin I +/+ mice (Fig. 2A). However, in the cyclin I / mice, distinct staining was seen in the glomerulus in a podocyte distribution (Fig. 2B). Weaker and variable expression was seen in tubular cells (data not shown). Wilm's tumor protein 1 (WT-1) was used as a podocyte specific marker (24) and by immunofluorescence co-localized with
galactosidase (Fig. 2, CE), confirming within the glomerulus the exclusive expression of
-galactosidase (and therefore the cyclin I gene) by podocytes in vitro. To confirm the podocyte-specific expression of the endogenous cyclin I protein, we used RT-PCR (Fig. 2F) and Western blot analysis (Fig. 2G) for cyclin I using RNA and protein from proliferating, undifferentiated and from post-mitotic, differentiated podocytes. Cyclin I expression was similar in proliferating and quiescent cells. Similarly to MEFs, cyclin I / podocytes showed no detectable defects in cell proliferation. For our further studies we focused on the role of cyclin I in renal podocytes.
Cultured Cyclin I / Podocytes Are More Susceptible to ApoptosisThe expression of cyclin I in post-mitotic cells suggested involvement in pathways other than the cell cycle. We therefore induced apoptosis in cultured cyclin I +/+ podocytes using uv-C irradiation. Western blot analysis demonstrated down-regulation of cyclin I protein levels in podocytes following irradiation (Fig. 3A). We then hypothesized that cyclin I might be important for determining the threshold at which podocytes undergo apoptosis following stimulation and explored this using cyclin I +/+ and / cultured podocytes. As determined by Hoechst 33342 staining, apoptosis occurred earlier, and was of a greater magnitude, in the cyclin I / podocytes following induction by three different stimuli: (i) uv-C (Fig. 3B), (ii) PAN (Fig. 3C), and (iii) anti-podocyte antibody (Fig. 3D). Apoptosis induced by uv-C activates both the intrinsic and extrinsic pathways of apoptotic signaling (25), whereas PAN principally activates the intrinsic pathway (26), and the mechanism by which the anti-podocyte antibody causes apoptosis is unknown. The increased susceptibility of the cyclin I / podocytes to apoptosis induced by all three stimuli suggests that cyclin I acts distally in the pathways converging to cause cell death. To further confirm the increased apoptosis in cyclin I / cells, we performed an activity assay for caspase 3 using uv-C-irradiated cyclin I +/+ and / podocytes (Fig. 3E). The increased caspase 3 activity in the irradiated cyclin I / podocytes validates the results using Hoechst 33342 staining, showing that apoptosis was significantly increased in cyclin I / cells compared with cyclin I +/+ cells receiving the same stimulus.
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Podocyte Number and Renal Function Are Normal in Unmanipulated Cyclin I / MiceWe next studied the role of cyclin I in vivo. The cyclin I / mouse is phenotypically normal under physiological conditions. Renal function and histology were evaluated in detail from 12-week-old male cyclin I +/+ and / mice (n = 6/group). There was no difference in serum creatinine (+/+, 0.23 + 0.06 mg/dl; /, 0.28 + 0.08 mg/dl, p = not significant), urine protein:creatinine ratio (+/+, 8.2 + 4.6 mg/mg; /, 8.3 + 7.8 mg/mg, p = not significant) or podocyte number (+/+, 8.1 + 0.3; /, 7.9 + 1.0 per glomerular cross-section, p = not significant) between the two groups. These results indicate that cyclin I is not required for normal glomerular development nor for maintenance of normal renal function.
Apoptosis Is Increased in Cyclin I / Nephritic MiceWe reasoned that a critical role for cyclin I might be revealed following injury, as suggested by the in vitro data. To test this hypothesis, experimental glomerulonephritis was induced in cyclin I +/+ and / mice with a sheep anti-podocyte antibody (20, 21). We have previously demonstrated that this model is not characterized by the presence of infiltrating leukocytes, and the observed rates of apoptosis are in resident glomerular cells (20). By immunofluorescence, equal deposition of sheep and mouse immunoglobulin was seen in both cyclin I +/+ and / mice at the same time points (data not shown), confirming comparable initiating injury.
Consistent with our in vitro data, glomerular cell apoptosis was increased 4-fold in the cyclin I / mice at day 7 of nephritis (0.07 + 0.03 versus 0.28 + 0.08 apoptotic cells per glomerular cross-section, p < 0.005), and these apoptotic cells were in a podocyte distribution (Fig. 4, A and B). To characterize the consequences of the early increased apoptosis, the number of podocytes was determined by counting WT-1-positive cells. There was no difference in podocyte number in unmanipulated mice (Fig. 5, A and B). However, by day 14 after disease induction podocyte number was significantly less in the cyclin I / versus wild-type mice (1.46 + 1.24 versus 3.19 + 0.90 cells per glomerular cross-section; p < 0.01) (Fig. 5, E and F).
As a decline in podocyte number has been reported to underlie pathological extracellular matrix accumulation and progressive glomerulosclerosis in both experimental and human disease, these parameters were assessed for the cyclin I +/+ and / mice. There was scant fibronectin staining in the glomeruli of unmanipulated mice (Fig. 5, C and D). At day 14 of disease, there was markedly greater immunostaining for fibronectin in the cyclin I / mice (Fig. 5, G and H). Although glomerulosclerosis was initially similar in the two groups, by day 14 of disease this had progressed to extensive involvement in the cyclin / mice (score 1.1 + 0.5 versus 2.6 + 0.8; p < 0.005) (Fig. 5J). There was a strong correlation between the decline in podocyte number and glomerulosclerosis for both groups of mice (Fig. 5K), supporting previous published reports of a causal relationship between podocyte loss and increased sclerosis. Similar results were seen following disease induction in cyclin I null mice in which the
-galactosidase gene had not been introduced. Thus, in this model of glomerulosclerosis cyclin I / mice suffered from an early increase in podocyte apoptosis, which culminated, at later stages, in a greater severity of glomerular disease.
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Reduced Levels of p21Cip1/Waf1 May Underlie the Susceptibility of Cyclin I / Podocytes to ApoptosisThere are close parallels between the disease susceptibility of the cyclin I / mice and p21Cip1/Waf1 / mice (15, 27). Indeed, we found that the decline in cyclin I levels following low dose uv-C irradiation was reminiscent of the previously reported decline in p21Cip1/Waf1 following irradiation (28). Moreover, as judged by Western blot analysis, the cyclin I / cells had less p21Cip1/Waf1 protein at baseline, and levels declined more rapidly following irradiation, in association with increasing apoptosis (Fig. 7A). This finding was confirmed in a second, independently derived podocyte cell line. The cyclin I +/+ and / podocytes have comparable levels of p53, which are unaffected by uv-C at the doses used. No differences were detected in the expression of p27Kip1 or p53 (data not shown). Interestingly, the increased susceptibility of cyclin I / podocytes to uv-C-induced apoptosis was identical to that of p21Cip1/Waf1 / podocytes (Fig. 7B), suggesting their involvement in a common pathway. Indeed, we found that the half-life of p21Cip1/Waf1 was reduced from 250 min in control podocytes to 120 min in the cyclin I / cells (Fig. 7, C and D). The half-life of p21Cip1/Waf1 is variable in different cell types (28, 29) and may reflect the role of other proteins, like cyclin I, in the stabilization of p21Cip1/Waf1 (30).
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We further explored the role of p21Cip1/Waf1 instability in cyclin I / podocytes. We used retroviral transduction to enforce expression of either wild type or lysineless (
K) human p21Cip1/Waf1 in cyclin I / podocytes. The use of human constructs enabled us to detect expression using a human-specific antibody, and
Kp21Cip1/Waf1 was studied as this protein is not ubiquitinated and therefore does not undergo accelerated degradation following uv-C (28). Western blot analysis demonstrated that although the wild-type p21Cip1/Waf1 is successfully expressed in the cyclin I podocytes, it remains unstable, whereas levels of the
Kp21Cip1/Waf1 persist following uv-C (Fig. 7G). The wild-type p21Cip1/Waf1 was ineffective at rescuing the cyclin I / podocytes from uv-C-induced apoptosis; however, protection was seen in the presence of
Kp21Cip1/Waf1 (Fig. 7F). Taken together, these results suggest that the stabilization of p21Cip1/Waf1 by cyclin I was required to inhibit apoptosis following injury.
| DISCUSSION |
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1 (13, 14), angiotensin II (35), mechanical stretch (36), glucose-induced reactive oxygen species (37), and cyclosporine A (38), which are likely to be important for the induction of podocyte apoptosis in disease states in vivo. The model of glomerulonephritis used in this study has previously been reported in detail by our laboratory, and similar severity of disease was seen in the cyclin I +/+ animals to that we have observed previously (15, 20, 21). The most significant histological finding was the 4-fold increase in apoptosis in the cyclin I / mice at day 7, compared with the nephritic cyclin I +/+ animals. The apoptotic cells were almost exclusively located in the periphery of the glomerulus. The location of the apoptotic cells, the initial restriction of cyclin I expression to podocytes, together with the loss of podocytes as determined by WT-1 staining, strongly suggest that the podocyte is the predominant cell type undergoing apoptosis. However, due to the morphological changes associated with apoptosis and the loss of cell type-specific proteins it was not possible to incontrovertibly confirm the origin of the apoptotic cells. There was a dramatic increase in glomerulosclerosis and extracellular matrix accumulation in the cyclin I / mice at day 14, which correlated strongly with a greater decline in podocyte number in the cyclin I / compared with the cyclin I +/+ mice.
Interestingly, the role of cyclin I in controlling apoptosis is cell type-specific, as cyclin I deficiency had no effect in two other models of in vivo apoptosis: (i) spontaneous apoptosis in the thymus of unmanipulated mice and (ii) tubular and interstitial cell apoptosis following UUO. We observed no increase in apoptosis above wild type in either tissue (data not shown) and therefore conclude that the apoptotic susceptibility of the cyclin I / mice is indeed restricted to certain cell types and within the kidney is limited to the non-dividing podocyte.
How does cyclin I protect podocytes from apoptosis? In addition to activating their partner Cdks, cyclins have a binding site for the Cip/Kip family of cyclin kinase inhibitors, p21Cip1/Waf1 being one member (3942). The susceptibility of p21Cip1/Waf1 / mice to apoptosis following a variety of insults in vivo has been described (43, 44), and cells derived from these animals have similarly been reported to exhibit a pro-apoptotic phenotype (43, 45). Intriguingly, we have previously demonstrated an increase in apoptosis in p21Cip1/Waf1 / mice using the same model of glomerulonephritis as described in the current study (15) but no increase in apoptosis following UUO (27). Our data showing that p21Cip1/Waf1 levels are reduced in cyclin I / cells, and that introducing cyclin I augments p21Cip1/Waf1 and lowers apoptosis in cyclin I / podocytes, suggest that a key mechanism by which cyclin I protects podocytes from apoptosis is by stabilization of p21Cip1/Waf1. Furthermore, the half-life of p21Cip1/Waf1 is reduced in cyclin I / podocytes. Previous results have shown that p21Cip1/Waf1 degradation can be inhibited by its assembly into complexes with cyclins and Cdks.5 This might represent the mechanism by which cyclin I stabilizes p21Cip1/Waf1 in post-mitotic podocytes.
The mechanism by which p21Cip1/Waf1 per se inhibits apo ptosis is not well understood. p53-dependent up-regulation of p21Cip1/Waf1 results in cell cycle arrest, which is proposed to allow repair of DNA damage. However, our results support a p53-independent role in the inhibition of apoptosis, as the uv-C dose used to initiate apoptosis was insufficient to induce p53. A proposed mechanism by which p21Cip1/Waf1 inhibits apoptosis is by its interaction with procaspase 3, preventing the cleavage and activation of caspase 3 (4648). This mechanism is in accordance with our results, as increased caspase 3 activity was observed in the cyclin I / cells in which levels of p21Cip1/Waf1 were low.
In summary, we have demonstrated that cyclin I prevents apoptosis in the post-mitotic podocyte in vitro and in vivo. We also provide evidence that cyclin I is a regulator of p21Cip1/Waf1 and that by maintaining p21Cip1/Waf1 levels, cyclin I protects cells from apoptosis. We propose that cyclin I has a critical role in protecting podocytes from apoptosis, thus preventing glomerulosclerosis and progression of renal disease.
| FOOTNOTES |
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1 These authors contributed equally to this work. ![]()
2 Supported by the American Heart Association. ![]()
3 An established member of the American Heart Association. To whom correspondence should be addressed: Dept. of Medicine, Division of Nephrology, University of Washington School of Medicine, 1959 NE Pacific St., Box 356521, Seattle, WA 98195. Tel.: 206-543-2346; Fax: 206-685-8661; E-mail: stuartjs{at}u.washington.edu.
4 The abbreviations used are: contig, group of overlapping clones; +/+, wild-type; /, knock-out; ES, embryonic stem; MEF, mouse embryonic fibroblast; PAN, puromycin aminonucleoside; GFP, green fluorescent protein; UUO, unilateral ureteric obstruction; WT-1, Wilm's tumor protein 1; TUNEL, terminal deoxynucleotidyltransferase-mediated dUTP nick end labeling; PBS, phosphate-buffered saline; RT, reverse transcription. ![]()
5 S. V. Griffin, J. P. Olivier, J. W. Pippin, J. M. Roberts, and S. J. Shankland, unpublished observations. ![]()
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