Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Flowers, Ebony M.
• Sudderth, Jessica
• Zacharias, Lauren
• Mernaugh, Glenda
• Zent, Roy
• DeBerardinis, Ralph J.
• Carroll, Thomas J.

Titel

Lkb1 deficiency confers glutamine dependency in polycystic kidney disease

Ist Teil von

• Nature communications, 2018-02, Vol.9 (1), p.814-11, Article 814

Ort / Verlag

London: Nature Publishing Group UK

Erscheinungsjahr

2018

Quelle

MEDLINE

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• Polycystic kidney disease (PKD) is a common genetic disorder characterized by the growth of fluid-filled cysts in the kidneys. Several studies reported that the serine-threonine kinase Lkb1 is dysregulated in PKD. Here we show that genetic ablation of Lkb1 in the embryonic ureteric bud has no effects on tubule formation, maintenance, or growth. However, co-ablation of Lkb1 and Tsc1, an mTOR repressor, results in an early developing, aggressive form of PKD. We find that both loss of Lkb1 and loss of Pkd1 render cells dependent on glutamine for growth. Metabolomics analysis suggests that Lkb1 mutant kidneys require glutamine for non-essential amino acid and glutathione metabolism. Inhibition of glutamine metabolism in both Lkb1/Tsc1 and Pkd1 mutant mice significantly reduces cyst progression. Thus, we identify a role for Lkb1 in glutamine metabolism within the kidney epithelia and suggest that drugs targeting glutamine metabolism may help reduce cyst number and/or size in PKD. Polycystic kidney disease (PKD) is characterized by the formation of large fluid-filled cysts. Here Flowers and colleagues show that loss of Lkb1, downregulated in PKD, renders kidney cells dependent on glutamine for growth, and suggest that inhibition of glutamine metabolism may prevent cyst development in PKD.