Effect of High Glucose Concentration on Glomerular Endothelial Permeability

Abstract

In order to assess glomerular endothelial permeability, we established an in vitro model using an immortalized bovine glomerular endothelial cell line. We examined the effect of high glucose concentration on albumin permeability across glomerular endothelial cell monolayers. Thirty millimolar D-glucose doubled albumin permeability (12.1±1.3%) compared with 10mM D-glucose (6.4±0.8%), but the albumin permeability of endothelial cells exposed to 10mM glucose+20mM mannitol was 6.8+0.5%. In addition, H-7 (25μM), a protein kinase C (PKC) inhibitor, suppressed the increased albumin permeability induced by 30mM glucose (7.8±0.9%). Lactate dehydrogenase release by endothelial cells incubated with 30mM glucose, on the other hand, was no different than when incubated with 10mM glucose, indicating that cytolysis was not associated with these events. These findings suggest that PKC activation is an important signal transduction pathway by which high glucose concentration increases glomerular endothelial albumin permeability.