Diabetic nephropathy (DN) is one of the most severe complications of diabetes mellitus. The pathomolecular events behind DN remain uncertain. Peroxisome proliferator-activated receptors (PPARs) play essential functions in the development of DN. Meanwhile, 20-hydroxyeicosatetraenoic acid (20-HETE) also plays central roles in the regulation of renal function. However, the relationship between PPARs and 20-HETE is rarely studied in DN. It was revealed in our study that both PPARs expression and CYP4A-20-HETE level were decreased under DN conditions in vivo and in vitro. Supplementation with bezafibrate, a PPAR pan-agonist, improved the damage of kidney in DN mice and in high glucose-induced NRK-52E cells, following the up-regulation of PPARs and the increase of CYP4A-20-HETE. PPARα antagonist (MK886), PPARβ antagonist (GSK0660), and PPARγ antagonist (GW9662) reversed the protection of bezafibrate in NRK-52E, and abrogated the up-regulation of CYP4A-20-HETE produced by bezafibrate. Noteworthily, 20-HETE synthetase inhibitor, HET0016, also blocked the bezafibrate-mediated improvement of NRK-52E, and abolished the up-regulation of PPARs expression. Collectively, our data suggest that the concurrent down-regulation and interaction of PPARs and 20-HETE play crucial roles in the pathogenesis process of DN, and we provide a novel evidence that PPARs/20-HETE signaling may be served as a therapeutic target for DN patients.
KEYWORDS: 20-HETE, CYP4A, Diabetes mellitus, Diabetic nephropathy, PPARs