Fig. 1
Combination treatment with chymostatin and aliskiren markedly prevented ER stress in HK2 cells treated with palmitic acid (0.6 mM) for 24 h. a Protein abundance of ER stress markers (BiP, IRE1α, PERK, ATF4, pS51-eIF2α, eIF2α, and CHOP) were upregulated after PA treatment, which was prevented by cotreatment with chymostatin (5X10−5M) and aliskiren (10− 8 M). b Quantitative analysis of ER stress marker levels normalized to β-actin. c Ratio of pS51-eIF2α and eIF2α. d Protein abundance of CHOP normalized to β-actin. Representative results of three independent experiments are shown. * p < 0.05 compared with controls; # p < 0.05 compared with PA. BiP, ER chaperone immunoglobulin heavy chain binding protein; IRE1α, inositol requiring protein 1α; PERK, protein kinase RNA (PKR)-like ER kinase; eIF2α: eukaryotic initiation factor 2α; ATF4, activating transcription factor 4; CHOP, C/EBP homologous protein. CTL, controls; PA, palmitic acid treatment group; PA + CMT, palmitic acid plus chymostatin treatment; PA + Ali, palmitic acid plus aliskiren treatment; PA + CMT + Ali, palmitic acid plus chymostatin and aliskiren treatment