Glucosamine-induced Sp1 O-GlcNAcylation ameliorates hypoxia-induced SGLT dysfunction in primary cultured renal proximal tubule cells.

The aim of this study is to determine whether GlcN could recover the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress-induced dysfunction of Na(+) /glucose cotransporter (SGLT) in renal proximal tubule cells (PTCs) under hypoxia. With the rabbit model, the renal ischemia induced tubulointerstitial abnormalities and decreased SGLTs expression in tubular brush-border, which were recovered by GlcN. Thus, the protective mechanism of GlcN against renal ischemia was being examined by using PTCs. Hypoxia decreased the level of protein O-GlcNAc and the expression of O-GlcNAc transferase (OGT) while increased O-GlcNAcase (OGA) and these were reversed by GlcN. Hypoxia also decreased the expression of SGLTs (SGLT1 and 2) and [(14) C]-α-methyl-D-glucopyranoside (α-MG) uptake which were recovered by GlcN and PUGNAc (OGA inhibitor). Hypoxia enhanced reactive oxygen species (ROS) and then ER stress proteins, glucose-regulated protein 78 (GRP78), and C/EBP-homologous protein (CHOP). However, the expression of GRP78 increased till 6 h and then decreased whereas CHOP increased gradually. Moreover, decreased GRP78 and increased CHOP were reversed by NAC (antioxidant) and GlcN. GlcN ameliorated hypoxia-induced decrease of O-GlcNAc modification of Sp1 but OGT or Sp1 siRNAs blocked the recovery effect of GlcN on SGLT expression and α-MG uptake. In addition, hypoxia-decreased GRP78 and HIF-1α expression was reversed by GlcN but OGT siRNA or Sp1 siRNA ameliorated the effect of GlcN. When PTCs were transfected with GRP78 siRNA or HIF-1α siRNA, SGLT expression and α-MG uptake was decreased. Taken together, these data suggest that GlcN-induced O-GlcNAc modified Sp1 with stimulating GRP78 and HIF-1α activity ameliorate hypoxia-induced SGLT dysfunction in renal PTCs. J. Cell. Physiol. 229: 1557-1568, 2014.