Project description:The most common subset of renal carcinoma, clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC), is characterized by accentuated accumulation of neutral lipids in lipid droplets and adipogenic trans-differentiation. Because obesity is a major risk factor in the development of ccRCC, we investigated the role of the adipokines in driving lipid metabolism and tumorigenesis in ccRCC. Through in silico screening, we identified the adipokine chemerin as candidate pro-oncogenic factor that is overexpressed in tumors and prognostic for patient outcome. Both ccRCC patient tumor tissues and serum exhibit elevated chemerin levels as compared to normal controls in an obesity-dependent manner. Attenuation of chemerin by several approaches in ccRCC cells led to significant impairments of tumor growth in both in vitro and in vivo models. A multi-omic approach revealed that chemerin suppresses fatty acid oxidation and maintains fatty acid levels which feed into transcriptional activation of hypoxia-inducible factor 2 (HIF2) expression. Suppression of chemerin therefore induced excess fatty acid oxidation and led to ferroptosis. CoQ and mitochondrial complex IV, derived mainly from lipid, were affected after chemerin inhibition, contributing to mitochondrial dysfunction and lipid reactive oxygen species production. Monoclonal antibody targeting chemerin led to reduced lipid storage, increased cell death, and diminished tumor growth, strengthening the translational potential of chemerin inhibition. Collectively, the results suggest that obesity and tumor cells contribute to ccRCC through the expression of chemerin, which is indispensable in ccRCC biology.
Project description:Chemerin is an oncogenic adipokine in ccRCC, and signals through CMKLR1 or GPR1 receptors. In order to determine the gene expression pathways controlled by chemerin (RARRES2), and what each receptor does, we knockout the three genes in 769-P ccRCC cells and performed RNAseq.
Project description:Chemerin is a leukocyte chemoattractant and an adipokine. Overexpression of chemerin by tumor cells or the host inhibits tumor progression in different mouse models, through a mechanism involving the chemerin receptor CMKLR1 and impairment of endothelial cell/pericyte interactions in neovessels.
Project description:Background Placental metabolic abnormalities are linked to pregnancy complications such as preeclampsia, gestational diabetes mellitus, and fetal growth restriction. However, little is known about how the metabolic processes regulate placental development and trophoblast differentiation. The adipokine chemerin has elevated serum levels in pregnant women and regulates placental lipid metabolism, potentially playing a role in both placental development and trophoblast differentiation. Results In this study, we observed the increased chemerin expression on the serum and placenta from the pregnant mice. Chemerin is highly expressed in the extraembryonic primary parietal trophoblast giant cells and the ectoplacental cone (EPC) trophoblast cells. Excessive chemerin treatment in mice results in the increased placental lipid accumulation, promotes the expansion of glycogen trophoblast cell (GlyT) and syncytiotrophoblast, and restricts the growth of spongiotrophoblast (SpT) and sinusoidal trophoblast giant cell (S-TGC). Chemerin deficiency led to increased expression of placental fatty acid oxidation enzymes and disrupted the proliferation of SpT and S-TGC in the labyrinth. Furthermore, we utilized the fatty acid oxidation inhibitor etomoxir, demonstrated that blocking fatty acid oxidation hinders the proliferation of SpT and S-TGC in the labyrinth. Conclusions Our study demonstrated that chemerin-related lipid metabolism is crucial for EPC trophoblast differentiation during placental development, providing evidence that chemerin determines the growth of SpT and S-TGC through fatty acid oxidation. These findings also imply a possible pathological mechanism for pregnancy complications associated with chemerin.
Project description:Acute kidney injury (AKI) is a common and life-threatening condition associated with cell death, where ferroptosis plays a critical role. Chemerin, primarily produced in white adipose tissue, has multiple biological functions in renal pathophysiology. However, to date, whether and how chemerin regulates the progression of AKI remain unclear. Here, we found that chemerin expression was reduced in both AKI model mice and cells. Similarly, serum chemerin levels were also decreased in AKI patients. The administration of recombinant chemerin improves renal function in ischemia-reperfusion (I/R) model mice. Chemerin significantly attenuates ferroptosis in kidneys. In TCMK-1 cells, chemerin knockdown further aggravates ferroptosis. Mechanistically, chemerin activates AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK), which induces the phosphorylation of nuclear factor erythroid 2-related factor 2 (NRF2) in renal tubular cells. Subsequently, NRF2 translocates into the nucleus, where it stimulates the expression of cystine/glutamate antiporter solute carrier (SLC7A11). As a result, cystine uptake and glutathione (GSH) biosynthesis in renal tubular cells were increased, which confers cells with higher capacity against ferroptosis. Overall, our findings indicate that chemerin plays a protective role in AKI by repressing ferroptosis in renal tubular cells, which is likely due to the activation in the AMPK/NRF2/SLC7A11 axis.
Project description:Effect of chemerin in these cells is hardly known. Cells of three donors were used to identify genes regulated by the active chemerin isoform.
Project description:We identified subsets of human CD28- effector CD8 T cells, of CCR7- CD45RO+ effector memory (EM) and CCR7- CD45RO- effector memory RA (EMRA) phenotypes, that express the chemerin receptor CMKLR1 and bind chemerin via the receptor. This study investigates differential gene expression between the chemerin binding and nonbinding human CD8 EMRA T cell subsets.
Project description:Obesity presents a known risk factor for acute kidney injury (AKI), but the precise mechanism underlying this phenomenon remains incompletely elucidated. In this study, we demonstrated that short-term high-fat diet (HFD) feeding aggravated kidney injury in AKI mice. Through multi-omics analysis, we identified chemerin (encoded by Rarres2) as a distinctive renal injury-related adipokine enriched in AKI tubular epithelial cells (TECs), particularly following exposure to HFD. Elevated chemerin levels were confirmed in the serum and kidney biopsy samples of AKI patients with obesity, exhibiting a negative correlation with renal function. Rarres2-/- mice were protected from HFD-induced vulnerability toward AKI as well as different types of AKI after standard diet, emphasizing its direct effect on AKI independent of metabolic factors. Mechanism investigation showed the receptor of chemerin-chemerin chemokine-like receptor 1 (CMKLR1) was expressed on renal mononuclear phagocytic cells (MPCs). By single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) analysis, unique Cmklr1hi clusters were identified in renal MPCs following AKI, exhibiting enhanced chemotaxis and pro-inflammatory capacity. Functionally, chemerin acted as a chemoattractant to enhance the chemotaxis of Cmklr1hi MPCs. Finally, supplementation of MPCs-derived cytokines reversed kidney injury in Rarres2-/- mice confirming the role of chemerin-CMKLR1 axis in promoting inflammation and kidney damage. Collectively, we identified chemerin as a specific inflammatory and metabolic target that functions through potent pro-inflammatory Cmklr1hi macrophages. Our study suggests that targeting the chemerin-CMKLR1 axis could be a promising therapeutic strategy for AKI patients, especially those with metabolic syndrome.
Project description:Here we report a humanized clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC) orthotopic NSG-SGM3 mouse model (hccRCC-NSG-SGM3) with reconstituted human lymphocytes derived from fetal CD34+ hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) bearing human ccRCC skrc-59 cells under the kidney capsule. Human leukocyte antigen (HLA) matched CD34+ HSCs were used for the humanization to reduce T cell alloreactivity against skrc-59 human ccRCC cells. Tumors were collected and sorted for CD45+ tumor infiltrated leukocytes (TILs) to profile the tumor microenvironment (TME) in hccRCC-NSG-SGM3. By comparing to patient data from prospective clinical trials of the anti-PD-1 monoclonal antibody (mAb) nivolumab in advanced ccRCC, the results demonstrated that the CD45+ TILs from hccRCC-NSG-SGM3 reconstitutes most CD45+ cell types, including NK cells, dendritic cells, exhausted CD8 T cells, regulatory T cells (Tregs), that are observed in advanced ccRCC patient TME. Furthermore, Anti-carbonic anhydrase IX (CAIX) G36 immune restoring (IR) chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cells secreting PD-L1 targeted immune checkpoint inhibitor (ICI) mAb (G36-PDL1) exhibited superior tumor control compared to G36 CAR-T cells with anti-SARS mAb (G36-SARS) and anti-BCMA A716 CAR-T cells with anti-PD-L1 mAb (A716-PDL1). In addition, G36-PDL1 CAR-T cells restored active anti-tumor immunity at tumor site uncovered by 10X genomics single cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) and single cell T cell receptor sequencing (scTCR-seq).