Inhibition of ACSL4 ameliorates tubular ferroptotic cell death and protects against fibrotic kidney disease

Abstract Ferroptosis is a recently recognized form of regulated cell death, characterized by iron-dependent accumulation of lipid peroxidation. Ample evidence has depicted that ferroptosis plays an essential role in the cause or consequence of human diseases, including cancer, neurodegenerative disease and acute kidney injury. However, the exact role and underlying mechanism of ferroptosis in fibrotic kidney remain unknown. Acyl-CoA synthetase long-chain family member 4 (ACSL4) has been demonstrated as an essential component in ferroptosis execution by shaping lipid composition. In this study, we aim to discuss the potential role and underlying mechanism of ACSL4-mediated ferroptosis of tubular epithelial cells (TECs) during renal fibrosis. The unbiased gene expression studies showed that ACSL4 expression was tightly associated with decreased renal function and the progression of renal fibrosis. To explore the role of ACSL4 in fibrotic kidney, ACSL4 specific inhibitor rosiglitazone (ROSI) was used to disturb the high expression of ACSL4 in TECs induced by TGF-β, unilateral ureteral obstruction (UUO) and fatty acid (FA)-modeled mice in vivo, and ACSL4 siRNA was used to knockdown ACSL4 in TGF-β-induced HK2 cells in vitro. The results demonstrated that inhibition and knockdown of ACSL4 effectively attenuated the occurrence of ferroptosis in TECs and alleviated the interstitial fibrotic response. In addition, the expression of various profibrotic cytokines all decreased after ROSI-treated in vivo and in vitro. Further investigation showed that inhibition of ACSL4 obviously attenuates the progression of renal fibrosis by reducing the proferroptotic precursors arachidonic acid- and adrenic acid- containing phosphatidylethanolamine (AA-PE and AdA-PE). In conclusion, these results suggest ACSL4 is essential for tubular ferroptotic death during kidney fibrosis development and ACSL4 inhibition is a viable therapeutic approach to preventing fibrotic kidney diseases.