Key Laboratory of Tropical Biological Resources of Ministry of Education, Hainan University, Haikou 570228, China.
School of Life and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Hainan University, Haikou 570228, China.
Mar Drugs. 2020 Jul 15;18(7):363. doi: 10.3390/md18070363.
Diabetic nephropathy (DN) is one of the major microvascular complications of diabetes, and mitochondrial dysfunction has been observed in the kidneys of diabetic patients. Tilapia skin peptides (TSPs) are mixtures of small-molecular-weight peptides derived from tilapia skin. Rising evidence suggests that bioactive peptides from marine sources are beneficial for DN. This study aimed to investigate whether TSPs can alleviate the pathological progress in experimental DN by improving mitochondrial dysfunction through the activation of Bnip3/Nix signaling. In the current study, TSPs treatment alleviated the metabolic parameters and renal morphology in streptozotocin-induced diabetic rats. Additionally, TSPs treatment significantly activated Bnip3/Nix signaling and improved the mitochondrial morphology, reversed the over-production of mitochondrial superoxide and cellular reactive oxygen species and the decreased mitochondrial membrane potential, thereby inhibiting the expressions of fibronectin, collagen IV and intercellular cell adhesion molecule-1 in glomerular mesangial cells induced by high glucose. Collectively, our results suggest that TSPs show the renoprotective effect on DN by improving mitochondrial dysfunction, and they can be a potential therapeutic strategy for DN.
糖尿病肾病（DN）是糖尿病的主要微血管并发症之一，已在糖尿病患者的肾脏中观察到线粒体功能障碍。罗非鱼皮肽（TSPs）是从小分子质量肽混合物衍生自罗非鱼皮。越来越多的证据表明，海洋来源的生物活性肽对 DN 有益。本研究旨在通过激活 Bnip3/Nix 信号来改善线粒体功能，探讨 TSP 是否可以通过改善线粒体功能来减轻实验性 DN 的病理进展。在本研究中，TSP 治疗可改善链脲佐菌素诱导的糖尿病大鼠的代谢参数和肾脏形态。此外，TSP 治疗显著激活了 Bnip3/Nix 信号，改善了线粒体形态，逆转了过量产生的线粒体超氧化物和细胞活性氧以及降低的线粒体膜电位，从而抑制了高葡萄糖诱导的肾小球系膜细胞中纤连蛋白、IV 型胶原和细胞间黏附分子-1 的表达。总之，我们的结果表明，TSP 通过改善线粒体功能显示出对 DN 的肾脏保护作用，它们可能是 DN 的一种潜在治疗策略。
