Research Paper Volume 13, Issue 1 pp 340—350

LINC00052 ameliorates acute kidney injury by sponging miR-532-3p and activating the Wnt signaling pathway

Xiaoying Li1, , Pengxi Zheng1, , Tingting Ji1, , Bo Tang1, , Yakun Wang1, , Shoujun Bai1, ,

  • 1 Department of Nephrology, Qingpu Branch of Zhongshan Hospital Affiliated to Fudan University, Qingpu 201700, Shanghai, P.R. China

Received: January 5, 2020       Accepted: July 30, 2020       Published: November 24, 2020      

https://doi.org/10.18632/aging.104152
How to Cite

Copyright: © 2020 Li et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Abstract

Acute kidney injury (AKI) is a complex renal disease. Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) have frequently been associated with AKI. In the present study, we aimed to investigate the molecular mechanism(s) of LINC00052 in AKI. We found that LINC00052 expression was significantly decreased in AKI patient serum. In addition, in a hypoxic AKI cell model, LINC00052 expression was strongly elevated. In an I/R-triggered AKI rat model, the expression of TNF-α, IL-6 and IL-1β mRNA was strongly elevated. Moreover, we predicted miR-532-3p to be targeted by LINC00052 in AKI. Overexpression of LINC00052 increased hypoxia-induced inhibition of NRK-52E cell proliferation and reversed hypoxia-triggered apoptosis. Furthermore, we found that induction of TNF-α, IL-6 and IL-1β was repressed by overexpression of LINC00052. LINC00052 decreased hypoxia-induced ROS and MDA accumulation in vitro and increased SOD activity. Decreased levels of c-myc and cyclin D1 were observed in renal tissues of AKI rats. Lastly, Wnt/β-catenin signaling was inactivated in NRK-52E cells experiencing hypoxia, and LINC00052 upregulation reactivated Wnt/β-catenin signaling by sponging miR-532-3p. Taken together, these results suggest that LINC00052 ameliorates AKI by sponging miR-532-3p and activating Wnt signaling.

Abbreviations

lncRNA: Long non-coding RNA; AKI: Acute kidney injury; TNF-α: Tumor necrosis factor α; IL-6: Interleukin-6; IL-1β: Interleukin-1β; ROS: Reactive oxygen species; MDA: Malondialdehyde; SOD: Super oxide dismutase; EdU: 5-ethynyl-2’-deoxyuridine; TUNEL: Terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase (TdT) dUTP nick-end labeling; RIP: RNA-binding protein immunoprecipitation; qRT-PCR: Quantitative real time polymerase chain reaction.