Journal of Pharmacological Sciences (Jan 2009)

The Protective Effect of a Newly Developed Molecular Chaperone– Inducer Against Mouse Ischemic Acute Kidney Injury

  • Worapat Prachasilchai,
  • Hiroko Sonoda,
  • Naoko Yokota-Ikeda,
  • Katsuaki Ito,
  • Takashi Kudo,
  • Kazunori Imaizumi,
  • Masahiro Ikeda

Journal volume & issue
Vol. 109, no. 2
pp. 311 – 314

Abstract

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Activation of the unfolded protein response (UPR) has been suggested to attenuate renal ischemia-reperfusion (I/R) injury. We recently found a compound, namely BIX, that activated the UPR selectively through the activating transcription factor 6 pathway. This study examined the effect of BIX on renal I/R injury in mice. BIX selectively up-regulated renal BiP mRNA and protein. Pretreatment with BIX significantly ameliorated renal I/R injury. Coadministration of BIX and tunicamycin, a non-selective UPR inducer, provided no additional protection. Our results suggest that the UPR activation by BIX leads to a novel drug therapy against renal I/R injury. Keywords:: renal ischemia-reperfusion injury, endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress, unfolded protein response