ISSN: 1449-2288International Journal of Biological Sciences
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Int J Biol Sci 2024; 20(3):937-952. doi:10.7150/ijbs.89916 This issue Cite
Research Paper
Loss of MTX2 causes mitochondrial dysfunction, podocyte injury, nephrotic proteinuria and glomerulopathy in mice and patients
1. Department of Nephrology, The Children's Hospital of Zhejiang University School of Medicine, National Clinical Research Center for Child Health, National Children's Regional Medical Center, Hangzhou, China.
2. Department of Pediatric Nephrology, Xi'an Children's Hospital, The Affiliated Children's Hospital of Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, China.
3. Department of Pediatric Nephrology, Wuhan Children's Hospital (Wuhan Maternal and Child Healthcare Hospital), Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science & Technology, Wuhan, China.
4. Kidney Disease Center of the First Affiliated Hospital and Department of Physiology, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou, China.
5. Institute of Pharmaceutical Biotechnology, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou, China.
*Equal contribution.
Abstract
Proteinuria is a common and important clinical manifestation of chronic kidney disease (CKD) and an independent risk factor for the progression of kidney disease. As a component of the glomerular filtration barrier (GFB), podocyte plays a key role in the pathogenesis of glomerular diseases and proteinuria. However, the pathophysiology of glomerular diseases associated with mitochondrial function is incompletely understood. Here, we identified three novel mutations in MTX2, encoding a membrane protein in mitochondria, associated with multisystem manifestations including nephrotic proteinuria and kidney injury in two Chinese patients. Conditional podocyte-specific Mtx2 knockout (Pod-Mtx2-KO) mice present a series of podocyte and glomerular abnormalities from 8 weeks to old age, including microalbuminuria, glomerular mesangial hyperplasia, fusion and effacement of foot process. MTX2 deficiency impaired podocyte functions in vitro, manifested by reductions of adhesion, migration and endocytosis, which were further restored by overexpression of MTX2. Moreover, MTX2 defects led to abnormal mitochondrial structure and dysfunction, evidenced with defects of complex I and III, increased production of reactive oxygen species (ROS), and decreased protein levels of Sam50-CHCHD3-Mitofilin axis in the mitochondrial intermembrane space bridging (MIB) complex which is responsible for maintaining mitochondrial cristae morphology. Collectively, these findings reveal that the normal expression of MTX2 in glomerulus plays an important role in the adhesion, migration, endocytosis, proliferation and other physiological functions of podocytes, which may be realized by maintaining the morphological structure and function of mitochondria. Abnormal expression of MTX2 can lead to mitochondrial dysfunction and structural abnormalities by Sam50-CHCHD3-Mitofilin axis in podocyte, which further induces podocyte injury, glomerular lesions and proteinuria.
Keywords: MTX2, proteinuria, glomerulopathy, podocyte, mitochondrial dysfunction
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