Non-canonical Wnt/calcium signaling is protective against podocyte injury and glomerulosclerosis.

ABSTRACT: Activation of canonical Wnt signaling has been implicated in podocyte injury and proteinuria. As Wnts are secreted proteins, whether Wnts derived from podocytes are obligatory for promoting proteinuria remains unknown. To address this, we generated conditional knockout mice where Wntless, a cargo receptor protein required for Wnt secretion, was specifically deleted in glomerular podocytes. Mice with podocyte-specific ablation of Wntless (Podo-Wntless^-/-) were phenotypically normal. However, after inducing kidney damage with Adriamycin for six days, Podo-Wntless^-/- mice developed more severe podocyte injury and albuminuria than their control littermates. Surprisingly, ablation of Wntless resulted in upregulation of β-catenin, accompanied by reduction of nephrin, podoci

SUBMITTER: Zhou D 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9232939 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature