Abstract
Recently, the role of kidney pericytes in kidney fibrosis has been investigated. This study aims to evaluate the effect of paricalcitol on hypoxia-induced and TGF-β1-induced injury in kidney pericytes. The primary cultured pericytes were pretreated with paricalcitol (20 ng/mL) for 90 min before inducing injury, and then they were exposed to TGF-β1 (5 ng/mL) or hypoxia (1% O2 and 5% CO2). TGF-β1 increased α-SMA and other fibrosis markers but reduced PDGFRβ expression in pericytes, whereas paricalcitol reversed the changes. Paricalcitol inhibited the TGF-β1-induced cell migration of pericytes. Hypoxia increased TGF-β1, α-SMA and other fibrosis markers but reduced PDGFRβ expression in pericyte, whereas paricalcitol reversed them. Hypoxia activated the HIF-1α and downstream molecules including prolyl hydroxylase 3 and glucose transporter-1, whereas paricalcitol attenuated the activation of the HIF-1α-dependent molecules and TGF-β1/Smad signaling pathways in hypoxic pericytes. The gene silencing of HIF-1α vanished the hypoxia-induced TGF-β1, α-SMA upregulation, and PDGFRβ downregulation. The effect of paricalcitol on the HIF-1α-dependent changes of fibrosis markers was not significant after the gene silencing of HIF-1α. In addition, hypoxia aggravated the oxidative stress in pericytes, whereas paricalcitol reversed the oxidative stress by increasing the antioxidant enzymes in an HIF-1α-independent manner. In conclusion, paricalcitol improved the phenotype changes of pericyte to myofibroblast in TGF-β1-stimulated pericytes. In addition, paricalcitol improved the expression of fibrosis markers in hypoxia-exposed pericytes both in an HIF-1α-dependent and independent manner.