Hemopexin accumulates in kidneys and worsens acute kidney injury by causing hemoglobin deposition and exacerbation of iron toxicity in proximal tubules

Hemopexin, a heme scavenging protein, accumulates in the kidneys during acute kidney injury (AKI). However, the function of this accumulated hemopexin in the kidney is unclear. In both the cisplatin-induced and the unilateral kidney ischemia-reperfusion injury models of AKI, we found accumulation of hemoglobin and hemopexin in the kidneys localized to the proximal tubules. Next, hemopexin wild-type and knockout mice were compared in both AKI models and hemopexin wild type mice had significantly worse kidney injury. Furthermore, there was increased kidney expression of kidney injury molecule-1 (a biomarker of AKI) and heme oxygenase-1 (an indicator of oxidative stress) in hemopexin wild type compared with knockout mice in both models of AKI. Next, the interaction of hemopexin and hemoglobin in vitro was investigated using cultured proximal tubular cells. Co-incubation of hemopexin with hemoglobin resulted in hemoglobin deposition and exaggerated hemoglobin-induced injury. Deferoxamine, an iron chelator, and ferrostatin-1, a ferroptosis inhibitor, inhibited this deleterious effect of hemoglobin and hemopexin in proximal tubular cells, implicating iron toxicity in the mechanism of hemopexin mediated injury. Furthermore, the protective effect of deferoxamine in cisplatin-induced AKI was apparent in hemopexin wild type, but not in hemopexin knockout mice, further implicating hemopexin as a mediator of iron toxicity in AKI. Thus, our findings demonstrate that hemopexin accumulates in the kidneys and worsens kidney injury in AKI by increasing hemoglobin deposition on proximal tubular cells to exaggerate hemoglobin-induced cell injury.