eprintid: 10091532 rev_number: 14 eprint_status: archive userid: 608 dir: disk0/10/09/15/32 datestamp: 2020-02-20 17:01:22 lastmod: 2021-09-30 22:47:08 status_changed: 2020-02-20 17:01:22 type: article metadata_visibility: show creators_name: Jiang, X-S creators_name: Chen, X-M creators_name: Wan, J-M creators_name: Gui, H-B creators_name: Ruan, X-Z creators_name: Du, X-G title: Autophagy Protects against Palmitic Acid-Induced Apoptosis in Podocytes in vitro ispublished: pub divisions: UCL divisions: B02 divisions: C10 divisions: D17 divisions: G93 note: This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in the credit line; if the material is not included under the Creative Commons license, users will need to obtain permission from the license holder to reproduce the material. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ abstract: Autophagy is a highly conserved degradation process that is involved in the clearance of proteins and damaged organelles to maintain intracellular homeostasis and cell integrity. Type 2 diabetes is often accompanied by dyslipidemia with elevated levels of free fatty acids (FFAs). Podocytes, as an important component of the filtration barrier, are susceptible to lipid disorders. The loss of podocytes causes proteinuria, which is involved in the pathogenesis of diabetic nephropathy. In the present study, we demonstrated that palmitic acid (PA) promoted autophagy in podocytes. We further found that PA increased the production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) in podocytes and that NAC (N-acetyl-cysteine), a potent antioxidant, significantly eliminated the excessive ROS and suppressed autophagy, indicating that the increased generation of ROS was associated with the palmitic acid-induced autophagy in podocytes. Moreover, we also found that PA stimulation decreased the mitochondrial membrane potential in podocytes and induced podocyte apoptosis, while the inhibition of autophagy by chloroquine (CQ) enhanced palmitic acid-induced apoptosis accompanied by increased ROS generation, and the stimulation of autophagy by rapamycin (Rap) remarkably suppressed palmitic acid-induced ROS generation and apoptosis. Taken together, these in vitro findings suggest that PA-induced autophagy in podocytes is mediated by ROS production and that autophagy plays a protective role against PA-induced podocyte apoptosis. date: 2017-02-22 date_type: published official_url: https://doi.org/10.1038/srep42764 oa_status: green full_text_type: pub pmcid: PMC5320537 language: eng primo: open primo_central: open_green verified: verified_manual elements_id: 1699740 doi: 10.1038/srep42764 pii: srep42764 lyricists_name: Ruan, Xiong-Zhong lyricists_id: XZRUA13 actors_name: Bracey, Alan actors_id: ABBRA90 actors_role: owner full_text_status: public publication: Scientific Reports volume: 7 article_number: 42764 event_location: England citation: Jiang, X-S; Chen, X-M; Wan, J-M; Gui, H-B; Ruan, X-Z; Du, X-G; (2017) Autophagy Protects against Palmitic Acid-Induced Apoptosis in Podocytes in vitro. Scientific Reports , 7 , Article 42764. 10.1038/srep42764 <https://doi.org/10.1038/srep42764>. Green open access document_url: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10091532/1/srep42764.pdf