Retinoic acid improves nephrotoxic serum-induced glomerulonephritis through activation of podocyte retinoic acid receptor α

Proliferation of glomerular epithelial cells, including podocytes, is a key histologic feature of crescentic glomerulonephritis. We previously found that retinoic acid (RA) inhibits proliferation and induces differentiation of podocytes by activating RA receptor-α (RARα) in a murine model of HIV-associated nephropathy. Here, we examined whether RA would similarly protect podocytes against nephrotoxic serum-induced crescentic glomerulonephritis and whether this effect was mediated by podocyte RARα. RA treatment markedly improved renal function and reduced the number of crescentic lesions in nephritic wild-type mice, while this protection was largely lost in mice with podocyte-specific ablation of Rara (Pod-Rara knockout). At a cellular level, RA significantly restored the expression of podocyte differentiation markers in nephritic wild-type mice, but not in nephritic Pod-Rara knockout mice. Furthermore, RA suppressed the expression of cell injury, proliferation, and parietal epithelial cell markers in nephritic wild-type mice, all of which were significantly dampened in nephritic Pod-Rara knockout mice. Interestingly, RA treatment led to the coexpression of podocyte and parietal epithelial cell markers in a small subset of glomerular cells in nephritic mice, suggesting that RA may induce transdifferentiation of parietal epithelial cells toward a podocyte phenotype. In vitro, RA directly inhibited the proliferation of parietal epithelial cells and enhanced the expression of podocyte markers. In vivo lineage tracing of labeled parietal epithelial cells confirmed that RA increased the number of parietal epithelial cells expressing podocyte markers in nephritic glomeruli. Thus, RA attenuates crescentic glomerulonephritis primarily through RARα-mediated protection of podocytes and in part through the inhibition of parietal epithelial cell proliferation and induction of their transdifferentiation into podocytes.