Reagents
Emodin (E7881), rapamycin (Rap, CAS#: 53123-88-9) and Dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) were purchased from Sigma-Aldrich Chemical Co (St Louis, MO, USA). Dorsomorphin (Compound C, S7840) was purchased from Selleck Chemicals LLC (Houston, Texas, USA). Recombination γ-Interferon (IFN-γ) was purchased from Pepro Tech Inc (Rocky Hill, New Jersey, USA). D-glucose (HG) was purchased from MedChemExpress (New Jersey, USA). Emodin was dissolved in DMSO to a concentration of 10 mmol/L.
Cell culture
The conditioned immortalized mouse podocytes (MPC5) were kindly provided by Professor Jun Yuan, Department of Nephrology, the Affiliated Hospital of Hubei University of Chinese Medicine, cells were from Professor Peter Mundel Laboratory (Mount Sinai Medical Center, New York, USA). Undifferentiated podocytes were cultured in RPMI 1640 medium (Hyclone, Thermo Fisher, Beijing, China) supplemented with 10% fetal bovine serum (FBS) (Gibco, USA) containing 10 U/ml IFN-γ, 100U/mL penicillin G and 100µg/mL streptomycin (Gibco BRL) at 33℃ under an atmosphere of 5% CO2, and induced to differentiate supplemented with 10% FBS without IFN-γ at 37℃ and 5% CO2 for 10-14 days in RPMI-1640 medium. The differentiated podocytes were used in subsequent experiments.
Evaluation of viable cells
The number of viable cells was assessed by trypan blue exclusion. Cells were treated with the indicated condition, then collected and resuspended in the trypan blue solution (0.4%), finally counted under a light microscope with a hemacytometer. At least three independent experiments were conducted.
Cell Proliferation Assay
The Cell Counting Kit-8 (CCK-8, Beyotime Biotechnology, Shanghai, China) was used to detect cell viability according to the manufacturer’s instructions. The differentiated MPC5 cells (5 × 103 cells per well) were seeded into 96-well plates and incubated with 5% CO2 at 37 ℃. When the cells proliferated to 70%-80% fusion in the plate, we sequentially changed to different concentrations of HG medium to each group. CCK-8 and serum-free RPMI 1640 medium were mixed at a ratio of 1:10 after 48 h, and then the cells were incubated for 2 h. The absorbance values of each well were measured at 450 nm using a microplate reader (SpectraMax i3x, Molecular Devices, Shanghai, China).
Flow cytometric (FACS) analysis of apoptosis
The apoptosis of MPC5 cells was assessed by using flow cytometry (Becton Dickinson) to analyze Annexin V-FITC and PI-stained cells labeled using the Annexin V-FITC Apoptosis Detection Kit (KeyGen Biotech, Nanjing, China) according to the manufacturer's protocol. Briefly, cells were treated with the indicated condition, and then collected and resuspended in binding buffer. Subsequently, cells were incubated with Annexin V-FITC (5 µl) and PI (5 µl) for 15 min [23]. The percentage of Annexin V-FITC and PI stained cells was assessed using Accuri C6 software (Becton Dickinson).
Western blot analysis
Podocytes cells were collected and lysed with RIPA lysis buffer (Beyotime, Hainan, China). Samples were obtained via centrifugation at 13,000g and 4°C for 5 min. The supernatants were boiled at 100°C for 5 min in loading buffer. Lysate protein concentrations were determined by bicinchoninic acid (BCA) protein concentration assay kit (Beyotime Biotechnology, Shanghai, China). Equal amounts of protein were separated using 10% sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) and then electrophoretically transferred to polyvinylidene fluoride membrane (Millipore, Bedford, USA). The membranes were blocked with 5% skimmed milk at room temperature for 1 h, and then incubated overnight at 4 ℃ with primary antibody as follows: anti-rat AMPK (ab80039), anti-rat p-AMPK (ab23875), anti-rat β-actin (ab227387) antibodies were from Abcam Ltd, HKSP, New Territories, HK; anti-rat LC3 I/II (12741), anti-rat mTOR (2983), anti-rat p-mTOR (5536), anti-rat Cleaved caspase-3 (9661) antibodies were from Cell Signaling Technology Company, Beverly, MA, USA; anti-rat caspase-3 (BM4620) antibodies were from Boster Biological Technology Co., Ltd, Wuhan, China; Horseradish peroxidase (HRP)-conjugated anti-rabbit immunoglobulins and anti-mouse immunoglobulins (KPL Company, USA) were used as the secondary antibody. The membranes were coated using HRP-labeled chemiluminescent substrates (Millipore, Bedford, USA), eventually exposed and fixed in the dark box. This procedure was carried out 3 times. The results were quantified using Image-Pro Plus 6.0 software (Media Cybernetic, Washington, USA), which were contrasted with densitometric signal of β-actin, respectively, and the ratios were expressed as the relative protein contents.
Transient transfection
MPC5 cells were transfected with the pmRFP-LC3 plasmid using Lipofectamine 2000 transfection reagent (Invitrogen, Carlsbad, CA, USA) according to the manufacturer’s instructions. The pmRFP-LC3 (#21075) plasmid was obtained from Addgene. MPC5 cells transfected with pmRFP-LC3 were then incubated with or without emodin for 1 h and observed for the formation of autophagosomes under a fluorescent microscope.
Statistical analysis
The data were analyzed using statistical software SPSS 24.0. Significant differences were evaluated using one-way ANOVA with Bonferroni post-hoc test (GraphPad Prism 6.0, La Jolla, CA, USA). A P-value < 0.05 was considered to be statistically significant.