PKC and high glucose stimulate collagen alpha 1 (IV) transcriptional activity in a reporter mesangial cell line.

Increased glomerular collagen IV mRNA in streptozotocin-diabetic rats and stimulation of matrix transcripts by high glucose levels in short-term mesangial cell culture provide evidence that stimulation of matrix synthesis is important in early diabetic glomerulopathy. To test whether transcriptional modulation of collagen IV genes is operative, we stably transfected a murine mesangial cell line with a "minigene" expressing luciferase driven by 5'-flanking and first-intron regions of the murine COL4A1 gene to assess the response to high glucose and the associated signaling pathway. Luciferase activity was stimulated in a dose- and time-dependent manner [near-maximal stimulation in 450 mg/dl glucose (G450) was more than twofold the level in 100 mg/dl (G100) at 48 h]; high concentrations of D-mannitol were without effect. Neither low (2 ng/ml) nor high doses (2 micrograms/ml) of insulin modified luciferase activity in either G100 or G450. We next studied whether activation of protein kinase C (PKC) mediates the effect of high glucose. Treatment with the active phorbol ester phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate for 2-4 h or with a diacylglycerol analogue for 24 h significantly stimulated luciferase activity preferentially in G100; the PKC inhibitors staurosporine or calphostin C significantly reduced the activity preferentially in G450. Thus high glucose levels promote transcriptional activity of COL4A1 gene in this reporter mesangial cell line, perhaps through PKC activation.