alogliptin and Proteinuria

Dipeptidyl peptidase (DPP)-4 is an enzyme that cleaves and inactivates incretin hormones capable of stimulating insulin secretion from pancreatic β-cells. DPP-4 inhibitors are now widely used for the treatment of type 2 diabetes. Experimental studies have suggested a renoprotective role of DPP-4 inhibitors in various models of diabetic kidney disease, which may be independent of lowering blood glucose levels. In the present study, we examined the effect of DPP-4 inhibitors in the rat Thy-1 glomerulonephritis model, a nondiabetic glomerular injury model. Rats were injected with OX-7 (1.2 mg/kg iv) and treated with the DPP-4 inhibitor alogliptin (20 mg·kg(-1)·day(-1)) or vehicle for 7 days orally by gavage. Alogliptin significantly reduced the number of CD68-positive inflammatory macrophages in the kidney, which was associated with a nonsignificant tendency to ameliorate glomerular injury and reduce proteinuria. Another DPP-4 inhibitor, anagliptin (300 mg·kg(-1)·day(-1) mixed with food) and a glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonist, exendin-4 (10 mg/kg sc), similarly reduced CD68-positive macrophage infiltration to the kidney. Furthermore, ex vivo transmigration assays using peritoneal macrophages revealed that exendin-4, but not alogliptin, dose dependently reduced monocyte chemotactic protein-1-stimulated macrophage infiltration. These data suggest that DPP-4 inhibitors reduced macrophage infiltration directly via glucagon-like peptide-1-dependent signaling in the rat Thy-1 nephritis model and indicate that the control of inflammation by DPP-4 inhibitors is useful for the treatment of nondiabetic kidney disease models.

Topics: Animals; Anti-Inflammatory Agents; Antigens, CD; Antigens, Differentiation, Myelomonocytic; Antilymphocyte Serum; Cell Line; Chemokine CCL2; Chemotaxis; Cytoprotection; Dipeptidyl Peptidase 4; Dipeptidyl-Peptidase IV Inhibitors; Disease Models, Animal; Exenatide; Glomerulonephritis; Glucagon-Like Peptide-1 Receptor; Kidney Glomerulus; Macrophages, Peritoneal; Male; Mice, Inbred C57BL; Peptides; Piperidines; Proteinuria; Pyrimidines; Rats, Sprague-Dawley; Receptors, Glucagon; Signal Transduction; Uracil; Venoms