VNN1 contributes to the acute kidney injury–chronic kidney disease transition by promoting cellular senescence via affecting RB1 expression

Abstract The mechanisms underlying acute kidney injury (AKI) and chronic kidney disease (CKD) progression include interstitial inflammation, cellular senescence, and oxidative stress (OS). Although vanin‐1 (VNN1) plays an important role in OS, its contribution to the AKI‐CKD transition remains unknown. Here, we explored the roles and mechanisms of VNN1 in the progression of the AKI‐CKD transition. We observed that VNN1 expression was upregulated after ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) injury and high VNN1 expression levels were associated with poor renal repair after I/R injury. In VNN1 knockout (KO) mice, recovery of serum creatinine and blood urea nitrogen levels after I/R injury was accelerated and renal fibrosis was inhibited after severe I/R injury. Furthermore, in VNN1 KO mice, senescence of renal tubular cells was inhibited after severe I/R injury, as assessed by P16 expression and SA‐β‐Gal assays. However, our results also revealed that VNN1 KO renal tubular cells did not resist senescence when OS was blocked. To elucidate the mechanism underlying VNN1‐mediated regulation of senescence during the AKI‐CKD transition, retinoblastoma 1 (RB1) was identified as a potential target. Our results suggest that the reduced senescence in VNN1 KO renal tubular cells was caused by suppressed RB1 expression and phosphorylation. Collectively, our results unveil a novel molecular mechanism by which VNN1 promotes AKI‐CKD transition via inducing senescence of renal tubular cells by activating RB1 expression and phosphorylation after severe renal injury. The present study proposes a new strategy for designing therapies wherein VNN1 can be targeted to obstruct the AKI‐CKD transition.