Thrombospondin in Renal Disease

This is the authors' abstract. We don't add key points for this paper.

Thrombospondins (TSPs) are multifunctional matricellular glycoproteins which are involved in the regulation of angiogenesis, proliferation, apoptosis, the NO-cGMP-dependent protein kinase pathway and transforming growth factor (TGF) beta activation. The TSP family consists of 5 members, but currently only data on effects of TSP-1 and TSP-2 in renal disease are available. Both TSPs are hardly expressed within the healthy renal cortex and can be upregulated during renal disease. Using different animal models for renal disease, TSP-1 and -2 were found to be important regulators of pathophysiological changes during renal disease with similar and contrary effects. TSP-1 is a major activator for TGF-beta resulting in profibrotic effects in the injured kidney. In contrast, TSP-2 lacks the ability for its activation. Proapoptotic actions of TSP-1 were found during renal ischemia/reperfusion injury. While TSP-1 exerts proinflammatory actions, the currently available data for TSP-2 propose anti-inflammatory effects for this molecule. Both TSPs are known angiogenesis inhibitors, which could be proved for TSP-2, but antiangiogenic effects for TSP-1 were only evident by treatment with TSP-1 peptides in renal disease. In addition, TSP-2 can inhibit cell proliferation and matrix metalloproteinase 2 activity.