Acute ethanol induces apoptosis by stimulating TRPC6 via elevation of superoxide in oxygenated podocytes

• Exogenous H2O2 acts as a oxygen donor for podocytes without causing oxidative stress.
• Acute ethanol elevates superoxide in H2O2 (oxygen)-preconditioned podocytes.
• Ethanol stimulates TRPC6 and elevates intracellular calcium in oxygenated podocytes.
• Ethanol induces apoptosis of oxygenated podocyte via superoxide activation of TRPC6.

Our recent studies indicate that hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) only at high concentrations can cause oxidative stress in renal epithelial cells and induce apoptosis of podocytes. Consistently, the present study shows that H2O2, even at 1 mM, failed to induce intracellular oxidative stress and apoptosis of the podocytes due to efficient activity of catalase, an enzyme which degrades H2O2 to produce water and oxygen (O2). However, H2O2 acted as a source of O2 to allow acute ethanol to induce superoxide production and cause apoptosis of the podocytes. In contrast, acute ethanol alone did not elevate intracellular superoxide, even though it stimulates expression and translocation of p47phox to the plasma membrane. Inhibition of catalase abolished not only O2 production from H2O2 degradation, but also NOX2-dependent superoxide production in the podocytes challenged by both H2O2 and acute ethanol. In parallel, acute ethanol in the presence of H2O2, but neither ethanol nor H2O2 alone, stimulated transient receptor potential canonical 6 (TRPC6) channels and caused TRPC6-dependent elevation of intracellular Ca2 +. These data suggest that exogenous H2O2 does not induce oxidative stress due to rapid degradation to produce O2 in the podocytes, but the oxygenated podocytes become sensitive to acute ethanol challenge and undergo apoptosis via a TRPC6-dependent elevation of intracellular Ca2 +. Since cultured podocytes are considered in hypoxic conditions, H2O2 may be used as a source of O2 to establish an ischemia–reperfusion model in some type of cultured cells in which H2O2 does not directly induce intracellular oxidative stress.