c-Jun NH2-terminal kinase 1/2 and endoplasmic reticulum stress as interdependent and reciprocal causation in diabetic...

Embryos exposed to high glucose exhibit aberrant maturational and cytoarchitectural cellular changes, implicating cellular organelle stress in diabetic embryopathy. c-Jun-N-terminal kinase 1/2 (JNK1/2) activation is a causal event in maternal diabetes-induced neural tube defects (NTD). However, the relationship between JNK1/2 activation and endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress in diabetic embryopathy has never been explored. We found that maternal diabetes significantly increased ER stress markers and induced swollen/enlarged ER lumens in embryonic neuroepithelial cells during neurulation. Deletion of either jnk1 or jnk2 gene diminished hyperglycemia-increased ER stress markers and ER chaperone gene expression. In embryos cultured under high-glucose conditions (20 mmol/L), the use of 4-phenylbutyric acid (4-PBA), an ER chemical chaperone, diminished ER stress markers and abolished the activation of JNK1/2 and its downstream transcription factors, caspase 3 and caspase 8, and Sox1 neural progenitor apoptosis. Consequently, both 1 and 2 mmol/L 4-PBA significantly ameliorated high glucose-induced NTD. We conclude that hyperglycemia induces ER stress, which is responsible for the proapoptotic JNK1/2 pathway activation, apoptosis, and NTD induction. Suppressing JNK1/2 activation by either jnk1 or jnk2 gene deletion prevents ER stress. Thus, our study reveals a reciprocal causation of ER stress and JNK1/2 in mediating the teratogenicity of maternal diabetes.