Mitochondrial dysfunction plays an important role in
acute kidney injury (AKI). Thus, the agents improving the mitochondrial function could be beneficial for treating AKI.
Ursodeoxycholic acid (UDCA) has been demonstrated to prevent
mitochondrial dysfunction under pathology, however, its role in AKI and the underlying mechanism remain unknown. This study aimed to evaluate the effect of UDCA on
cisplatin-induced AKI. In vivo, C57BL/6 J mice were treated with
cisplatin (25 mg/kg) for 72 h to induce AKI through a single intraperitoneal (i.p.) injection with or without UDCA (60 mg/kg/day) administration by gavage. Renal function, mitochondrial function and oxidative stress were analyzed to evaluate kidney injury. In vitro, mouse proximal tubular cells (mPTCs) and human proximal tubule epithelial cells (HK2) were treated with
cisplatin with or without UDCA treatment for 24 h. Transcriptomic
RNA-seq was preformed to analyze possible targets of UDCA. Our results showed that
cisplatin-induced increments of serum
creatinine (Scr), blood
urea nitrogen (BUN), and
cystatin C were significantly reduced by UDCA along with ameliorated renal tubular injury evidenced by improved renal histology and blocked upregulation of
neutrophil gelatinase associated lipocalin (NGAL) and kidney injury molecule 1 (KIM-1). Meanwhile, the apoptosis induced by
cisplatin was also markedly attenuated by UDCA administration. In vitro, UDCA treatment protected against tubular cell apoptosis possibly through antagonizing
mitochondrial dysfunction and oxidative stress by targeting ALDH1L2 which was screened out by an
RNA-seq analysis. Knockout of ALDH1L2 by CRISPR/Cas9 greatly blunted the protective effects of UDCA in renal tubular cells. Moreover, UDCA did not diminish
cisplatin's
antineoplastic effect in human
cancer cells. In all, our results demonstrated that UDCA protects against
cisplatin-induced AKI through improving mitochondrial function through acting on the expression of ALDH1L2, suggesting a clinical potential of UDCA for the treatment of AKI.