Lysophosphatidic acid-mediated signal-transduction pathways involved in the induction of the early-response genes prostaglandin G/H synthase-2 and Egr-1: a critical role for the mitogen-activated protein kinase p38 and for Rho proteins.

During inflammatory processes of the kidney, lesions of the glomerulus lead to aggregation of thrombocytes and infiltration of macrophages, which can release bioactive mediators. One of these important signalling molecules is lysophosphatidic acid (LPA). Incubation of rat mesangial cells with LPA induced mRNA and protein expression of the early-response genes pghs-2 (for prostaglandin G/H synthase-2/cyclo-oxygenase-2) and egr-1. As shown by antisense experiments, induction of egr-1 was related to the strong mitogenic effect of LPA. LPA-mediated gene expression was inhibited by pertussis toxin, indicating coupling to G-proteins of the Gi family. Specific inhibition of proteins of the small G-protein subfamily Rho with toxin B from Clostridium difficile led to changes in mesangial cell morphology without induction of apoptosis. LPA-mediated expression of pghs-2 and egr-1 was reduced to base-line levels by toxin B, indicating a role for Rho proteins in LPA-mediated gene induction. Of the two mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) pathways investigated, the MAPK kinase-extracellular signal-regulated kinase pathway was involved in the induction of both pghs-2 and egr-1 mRNA expression, as shown by the inhibitory effect of PD98059. Activation of the MAPK p38, however, was only related to pghs-2 expression, whereas egr-1 expression was not affected by treatment of mesangial cells with the specific inhibitor SB203580. Taken together our data provide evidence that LPA-mediated activation of MAPK kinase and Rho proteins leads to the induction of the functionally distinct early-response genes pghs-2 and egr-1, whereas activation of MAPK p38 revealed considerable differences between the regulation of these two genes.