Study of Renal Transporters and Their Regulators After Renal Transplantation

After renal transplantation, caused by ischemia or rejection, often renal transport processes are disturbed. These dysfunctions which are similar to the Fanconi syndrome as well as renal tubular acidosis occur in the early phase after transplantation. Irreversible injuries develop caused by nephrotoxicity of immunosuppressants and renal transplant artery stenoses. Although this has impact on clinical follow up and prognosis of the transplant, up to now, it still has to be clarified by which mechanisms the tubular transport processes are impaired.

In an animal model, we demonstrated first, that expression of membrane proteins is specifically modulated early after transplantation, indicating that changes in expression and function in these models are not due to general necrosis or apoptosis. Second, our results differ from data obtained after ischemia / reperfusion. Third, the regulatory pattern seems not to be the consequence of a systemic effect. We suppose that changes in expression of transporters and receptors after transplantation and rejection are continuously modulated, which may influence the prognosis of the graft. The data suggest that transplantation with acute rejection leads to ischemia-independent changes in the regulation of transporters along the nephron (Velic A, Gabriëls G, Hirsch JR, Schröter R, Edemir B, Paasche S, Schlatter E. Acute rejection after rat renal transplantation leads to downregulation of Na+ and water channels in the collecting duct. Am J Transplant. 2005, 5: 1276-85. Velic A, Hirsch JR, Bartel J, Thomas R, Schröter R, Stegemann H, Edemir B, August C, Schlatter E, Gabriëls G: Renal transplantation modulates expression and function of receptors and transporters of rat proximal tubules. J Am Soc Nephrol. 2004, 15: 967-77).

By means of microarray analysis we examined the expression of genes after renal transplantation in rats. Of the about 18.000 genes, in the model of acute rejection more than 55% of the genes were changed in their expression compared to controls, while transplantation without rejection only induced a change in expression of 30% of the genes. With rejection, about 50% of these genes were upregulated and about 50 % downregulated.

The regulated genes were classified in different groups. An essential part of the genes upregulated with rejection, as expected, point to a massive immune response. With rejection, a large amount of the genes coding for proteins with transport activity or proteins involved in metabolism are downregulated (e.g. amino acid transport, glucose transport, K+-, Ca++- and phosphate transport, transport of water, pH regulation). It was shown that, with rejection, signal transduction pathways involved in protein catabolism and immune response are upregulated.

By the present study in renal biopsies of about 200 transplanted individuals with acute rejection or chronic transplant nephropathy, we intend to examine the regulation of transport systems and regulatory factors during a period of two years. Our hypothesis is that the activity of transporters along the nephron is changed with renal transplantation, acute rejection reaction, or chronic transplant nephropathy. We intend to investigate underlying mechanisms in renal biopsy specimens obtained from patients because of acute rejection reaction or chronic transplant nephropathy.