Influence of sphingomyelin metabolism during epithelial–mesenchymal transition associated with aging in the renal papilla

Abstract The renal collecting ducts (CD) are formed by a fully differentiated epithelium, and their tissue organization and function require the presence of mature cell adhesion structures. In certain circumstances, the cells can undergo de‐differentiation by a process called epithelial–mesenchymal transition (EMT), in which the cells lose their epithelial phenotype and acquire the characteristics of the mesenchymal cells, which includes loss of cell–cell adhesion. We have previously shown that in renal papillary CD cells, cell adhesion structures are located in sphingomyelin (SM)‐enriched plasma membrane microdomains and the inhibition of SM synthase 1 activity induced CD cells to undergo an EMT process. In the present study, we evaluated the influence of SM metabolism during the EMT of the cells that form the CD of the renal papilla during aging. To this end, primary cultures of renal papillary CD cells from young, middle‐, and aged‐rats were performed. By combining biochemical and immunofluorescence studies, we found experimental evidence that CD cells undergo an increase in spontaneous and reversible EMT during aging and that at least one of the reasons for this phenomenon is the decrease in SM content due to the combination of decreased SM synthase activity and an increase in SM degradation mediated by neutral sphingomyelinase. Age is a risk factor for many diseases, among which renal fibrosis is included. Our findings highlight the importance of sphingolipids and particularly SM as a modulator of the fate of CD cells and probably contribute to the development of treatments to avoid or reverse renal fibrosis during aging.