Journal: iScience
Article Title: FTO inhibition attenuates renal fibrosis by downregulating ferroptosis activator ACSL4 and profibrotic factor TGFBI
doi: 10.1016/j.isci.2025.113515
Figure Lengend Snippet: FTO inhibition protects against ferroptosis in hESC-derived kidney organoids by downregulating ACSL4-mediated ferroptosis (A) Generation of kidney organoids from hESC cells. (B) Immunofluorescence staining for cell type-specific markers in kidney organoids. (C) Expression changes of stem cell markers and kidney epithelial markers during the differentiation period of 20 days determined by qRT-PCR. (D) FTO, ACSL4, and TGFBI expression levels were dramatically decreased in kidney organoids after lentiviral transfection of shFTO determined by western blot. FTO inhibition attenuated erastin-induced ferroptosis determined by LDH assay (E), lipid peroxidation determined by MDA assay (F), and ROS production (G) in kidney organoids. FTO inhibition significantly reduced TGFBI (H) and LCN2 (I) expression at transcript level determined by qPCR compared with vehicle control. Schematic diagram of the mechanisms of FTO upregulation (J) and downregulation (K) in RF. Scale bars: 50 μm in (A and B). ∗ p < 0.05; ∗∗ p < 0.01. Data are represented as mean ± SD.
Article Snippet: Primary renal epithelial cells were generated from kidney tissues excised from 8- to 12-wk-old C57/BL6 female mice and cultured in Renal Epithelial Cell Growth Medium 2 (PromoCell C-26030) as previously described.
Techniques: Inhibition, Derivative Assay, Immunofluorescence, Staining, Expressing, Quantitative RT-PCR, Transfection, Western Blot, Lactate Dehydrogenase Assay, Multiple Displacement Amplification, Control