Genetic inactivation of Semaphorin 3C protects mice from acute kidney injury

To guide the development of therapeutic interventions for acute kidney injury, elucidating the deleterious pathways of this global health problem is highly warranted. Emerging evidence has indicated a pivotal role of endothelial dysfunction in the etiology of this disease. We found that the class III semaphorin SEMA3C was ectopically upregulated with full length protein excreted into the blood and truncated protein secreted into the urine upon kidney injury and hypothesized a role for SEAM3C in acute kidney injury. Sema3c was genetically abrogated during acute kidney injury and subsequent kidney morphological and functional defects in two well-characterized models of acute kidney injury; warm ischemia/reperfusion and folic acid injection were analyzed. Employing a beta actin-dependent, inducible knockout of Sema3c, we demonstrate that in acute kidney injury SEMA3C promotes interstitial edema, leucocyte infiltration and tubular injury. Additionally, intravital microscopy combined with Evans Blue dye extravasation and primary culture of magnetically sorted peritubular endothelial cells identified a novel role for SEMA3C in promoting vascular permeability. Thus, our study points to microvascular permeability as an important driver of injury in acute kidney injury, and to SEMA3C as a novel permeability factor and potential target for therapeutic intervention.