Source: Zhongshan School of Medicine
Written by: Zhongshan School of Medicine
Edited by: Wang Dongmei

Professors Weidong Wang and Chunling Li’s groups at the Institute of Hypertension, Zhongshan School of Medicine, Sun Yat-Sen University, published a research paper entitled “Bile Acid G-protein Coupled Membrane Receptor TGR5 Modulates AQP2-Mediated Water Homeostasis" in the Journal of American Society of Nephrology (JASN) on October 10th, 2018 .

This study demonstrates that bile acid regulates water homeostasis in the kidney, in addition to classically facilitating the digestion and absorption of dietary lipids in the intestine. Bile acid increases the expression of water channel protein, aquaporin-2 through activating the bile acid membrane receptor TGR5 in the kidney collecting duct principal cells and thus promotes water reabsorption in the kidney, preventing the nephrogenic diabetes insipidus. This study uncovers a novel role of bile acid and TGR5 in regulating renal functions and helps to understand the molecular mechanisms of some water retention conditions in liver diseases, e.g. cirrhosis ascites or hepatorenal syndrome.

This work was completed mainly by the research team of Profs Weidong Wang and Chunling Li. Several abroad labs are also actively involved, including Georgetown University and Johns Hopkins University from USA, Heinrich-Heine University from Germany, and Kyungpook National University from Korea. This work is an excellent example of the international collaboration in the Institute of Hypertension, Zhongshan School of Medicine.

The first author of the article, Suchun Li, a third year PhD student, presented this work at the Annual Meeting of Experimental Biology 2018 (EB 2018) in April, the United States, and won the Predoctoral Research Recognition of the American Physiological Society Renal Section.

Link to this paper: https://jasn.asnjournals.org/content/early/2018/10/10/ASN.2018030271