RESEARCH PROGRESS OF GLOMERULAR ENDOTHELIAL CELL-PODOCYTE INTERACTION IN DN PATIENTS 

Xiaoyun Wan^{1, 2}, Fang Zhang^{1, 2} , Chao Liu^{1, 2, *}

¹Affiliated Hospital of Integrated Traditional Chinese and Western Medicine, Nanjing University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Nanjing, Jiangsu, 210028, PR China - ²Jiangsu Province Academy of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Nanjing, Jiangsu, 210028, PR China

Diabetic Nephropathy (DN) is one of important pathogeneses resulting in endstage renal disease, seriously affects patients’ living quality and threatens life safety. Deeply exploring DN pathogenesis and seeking a more effective treatment method to improve patients’ clinical prognosis have become a hot issue in the medical field. The early report holds that podocyte damage has close relations with DN occurrence and development. Recent studies verify that glomerular endothelial cell damage also participates in DN progress. Podocytes and glomerular endothelial cells have many same signal regulation paths, so their interaction has been proven to be a potential important mechanism of DN onset. After DN patients’ podocytes are damaged, the secretion of multiple signal molecules including VEGF and Ang-1 is abnormal. Meanwhile, damaged glomerular endothelial cells can synthesize and secrete HGF, IGFBPs and other cytokines which will also influence podocyte functions, thus leading to the changes in the structure and function of podocytes to different degrees. Based on the above evidence, exploring the interaction between glomerular endothelial cells and podocytes has important value for further specifying DN pathogenesis and determining a better treatment strategy.