Renal Failure (Dec 2024)

Liraglutide alleviates high-fat diet-induced kidney injury in mice by regulating the CaMKKβ/AMPK pathway

  • Yingli Xuan,
  • Ting-ting Ding,
  • Xiao-lei Mao,
  • Shiqing Pang,
  • Ruibin He,
  • Li Qin,
  • Jiang zi Yuan

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1080/0886022X.2024.2351473
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 46, no. 1

Abstract

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Objective Liraglutide, a glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonist, has been shown to regulate blood sugar and control body weight, but its ability to treat obesity-related nephropathy has been poorly studied. Therefore, this study was designed to observe the characteristics and potential mechanism of liraglutide against obesity-related kidney disease.Methods Thirty-six C57BL/6J male mice were randomly divided into six groups (n = 6 per group). Obesity-related nephropathy was induced in mice by continuous feeding of high-fat diet (HFD) for 12 weeks. After 12 weeks, liraglutide (0.6 mg/kg) and AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) agonists bortezomib (200 μg/kg) were injected for 12 weeks, respectively. Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay was employed to detect the levels of total cholesterol, triglycerides, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, blood urea nitrogen, creatinine in serum, as well as urinary protein in urine. Besides, hematoxylin–eosin staining and periodic acid-Schiff staining were used to observe the pathological changes of kidney tissue; immunohistochemistry, western blot, and real-time quantitative PCR to assess the calmodulin-dependent protein kinase kinase beta (CaMKKβ)/AMPK signaling pathway activation.Results Liraglutide significantly reduced serum lipid loading, improved kidney function, and relieved kidney histopathological damage and glycogen deposition in the mouse model of obesity-related kidney disease induced by HFD. In addition, liraglutide also significantly inhibited the CaMKKβ/AMPK signaling pathway in kidney tissue of HFD-induced mice. However, bortezomib partially reversed the therapeutic effect of liraglutide on HDF-induced nephropathy in mice.Conclusions Liraglutide has a therapeutic effect on obesity-related kidney disease, and such an effect may be achieved by inhibiting the CaMKKβ/AMPK signaling pathway in kidney tissue.

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