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Excel · study · 2026

GDF5 exacerbates tubulointerstitial injury by inducing partial epithelial-mesenchymal transition of tubular epithelial cells in diabetic kidney disease

Listed in NCBI GEO

Adipokines serve crucial functions in diabetic kidney disease (DKD) pathogenesis.

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Growth differentiation factor 5 (GDF5) is highly expressed in adipose tissue, but its specific role in DKD is unknown. In this study, we observed elevated GDF5 expression in both DKD patients and db/db mice, suggesting a potential association between GDF5 and DKD progression.

Elevated plasma GDF5 levels are associated with an increased risk of incident CKD in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus. In animal studies, adipose-specific overexpression of GDF5 increased circulating GDF5 and exacerbated renal injury in db/db mice, characterized by increased tubulointerstitial injury and inflammation infiltration. Conversely, adipose-specific knockdown reduced circulating GDF5 and alleviated renal injury.

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In vitro studies demonstrated that GDF5 induces partial epithelial-mesenchymal transition (pEMT) in renal tubular epithelial cells via activation of the SMAD1/5/8 signaling pathway, as evidenced by reduced E-cadherin expression and increased Snail1 levels. Notably, the supernatant from GDF5-treated injured HK-2 cells was found to enhance the secretion of pro-inflammatory cytokines by macrophages. These findings suggest that adipose-derived GDF5 acts as a novel mediator contributing to tubulointerstitial injury in DKD.

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Life Sciences
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Disease 75%
Provenance · 1 source records, 8 field assertions
SourceKeyLast seenRaw
NCBI GEOGSE30109415 d agoJSON v1
FieldAssertionExtractorEvidence
access_levelsource · NCBI GEOconnector:ncbi_geo@1.0.0
concepts[disease].local:disease:diseaseenrichment · NCBI GEOkeyword-concept-rules@1.0.0title+description (75%)
concepts[field].local:field:life-sciencesmapping · NCBI GEOconnector:ncbi_geo@1.0.0
concepts[method].geo_series_type:expression-profiling-by-high-throughput-sequencingsource · NCBI GEOconnector:ncbi_geo@1.0.0/gdstype
concepts[organism].NCBITaxon:9606source · NCBI GEOconnector:ncbi_geo@1.0.0/taxon
descriptionsource · NCBI GEOconnector:ncbi_geo@1.0.0/summary
publication_datesource · NCBI GEOconnector:ncbi_geo@1.0.0
titlesource · NCBI GEOconnector:ncbi_geo@1.0.0/title