Aristolochic acid causes albuminuria by promoting mitochondrial DNA damage and dysfunction in podocyte

PLoS One. 2013 Dec 13;8(12):e83408. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0083408. eCollection 2013.

Abstract

Aristolochic acid nephropathy, initially found in patients intaking of slimming herbs containing aristolochic acid (AA), was previously considered as a progressive renal interstitial fibrosis and urothelial malignancy. However, the presence of albuminuria in some patients with AAN suggests that AA may also damage the glomerular filtration barrier. In this study, mice AAN model was generated by daily administration of aristolochic acid I sodium salt intraperitoneally at a dose of 6 mg/kg body weight for 3 days. All of the mice developed heavy albuminuria at day 3 and 7 after receiving AA. In the mice received AA, morphologic change of glomeruli was minor under light microscopy but podocyte foot-process effacement was evident under electron microscopy. In mitochondria isolated from kidney, prominent mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) damage was accompanied with marked decrease of mtDNA copy number and mitochondrial protein expression level. Similar to those in vivo results, AA treatment impaired the filtration barrier function of cultured podocytes. AA promoted mtDNA damage, decreased mtDNA copy number and mitochondrial protein expression in cultured podocytes. In addition, AA treatment also decreased ATP content, oxygen consumption rate and mitochondrial membrane potential as well as increased cellular reactive oxygen species in cultured podocytes. This study highlighted that AA could induce podocyte damage and albuminuria, which may be mediated by promoting mtDNA damage and mitochondrial dysfunction in podocytes.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Albuminuria / chemically induced
  • Albuminuria / metabolism*
  • Albuminuria / pathology
  • Animals
  • Aristolochic Acids / adverse effects*
  • Aristolochic Acids / pharmacology
  • Carcinogens / pharmacology*
  • Cell Line, Transformed
  • DNA Damage*
  • DNA, Mitochondrial / metabolism*
  • Male
  • Membrane Potential, Mitochondrial / drug effects
  • Mice
  • Mitochondria / metabolism*
  • Mitochondria / ultrastructure
  • Podocytes / metabolism*
  • Podocytes / ultrastructure

Substances

  • Aristolochic Acids
  • Carcinogens
  • DNA, Mitochondrial
  • aristolochic acid I

Grants and funding

This work was supported by “973” Science Program of the Ministry of Science and Technology, China (2011CB504005), Outstanding Medical Academic Leader Program of Jiangsu Province and Foundation from Department of science and technology of Jiangsu Province to J.W. Yang. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.