Proteomic Identification of 14-3-3ζ as an Adapter for IGF-1 and Akt/GSK-3β Signaling and Survival of Renal Mesangial Cells

Recently we demonstrated that IGF-1 expression is increased in the diabetic kidney and that it may involve in renal hypertrophy and extracellular matrix protein (ECM) accumulation in mesangial cells as seen in diabetic glomerulopathy. The present study investigates the molecular mechanism(s) of IGF-1 and Akt/glycogen synthase kinase-3beta (GSK-3β) signaling pathway in the regulation of fibronectin and cyclin D1 expression and survival of renal mesangial cells. A proteomic approach is also employed to identify protein targets of IGF-1 signaling via GSK-3β inhibition in mesangial cells. We show that IGF-1 (100 ng/ml) significantly increases the protein kinase Akt/PKB activity (1.5-2-fold, p<0.05) within 1-5 minutes, which is completely blocked by the presence of 100 nM Wortmannin (phosphatidyl-inositol 3-kinase inhibitor). Akt activation is coupled with Ser9 phosphorylation and inactivation of its down-stream target GSK-3β. IGF-1 increases the cyclic AMP-responsive element (CRE) binding transcription factor CREB phosphorylation at Ser 133 and CRE-binding activity in mesangial cells, which parallels cyclin D1 and fibronectin expressions. Both proteins are known to have CRE-sequences in their promoter regions upstream of the transcription start site. Suppression of GSK-3β by SB216763 (100 nM) increases CREB phosphorylation, cyclin D1 and fibronectin levels. Two dimensional gel electrophoresis followed by MALDI-TOF mass spectrometric analysis of mesangial proteins reveals that IGF-1 treatment or an inhibition of GSK-3β increases the expression of the phosphorylated Ser/Thr binding signal adapter protein 14-3-3ζ. Immuno-precipitation of 14-3-3ζ followed by Western blotting validates the association of phosphorylated GSK-3β with 14-3-3ζ in renal mesangial cells. Stable expression of a constitutively active GSK-3β(Ser9Ala) induces cell death while overexpression of HA-tagged 14-3-3ζ increases cell viability as measured by MTT assays. These results indicate that the Akt/GSK-3β pathway and the adapter protein 14-3-3ζ may play an important role in IGF-1 signaling and survival of mesangial cells in diabetic nephropathy.