High-dose dexamethasone injection disordered metabolism and multiple protein kinases expression in the mouse kidney.

Glucocorticoids (GCs) have been widely used in clinical treatment as anti-inflammatory, anti-shock and immunosuppressive medicines. However, the effect of excessive GCs on immune response and metabolism of kidney remains unclear. Here, we profiled the gene expression of kidney from mice with high-dose dexamethasone treatment. 1193 differential expressed genes (DEGs) were screened in dexamethasone treatment group compared to the saline group, including 715-down regulated and 478-up regulated. Gene Ontology and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway analysis of these DEGs showed extracellular matrix (ECM)-receptor interaction, cell adhesion molecules signaling pathway were significantly enriched, and that the vast majority of DEGs were involved in monocarboxylic acid metabolism, leukocyte cell-cell adhesion and fatty acid metabolism. Gene set enrichment analysis revealed that DEGs were strongly associated with immune-response and cell adhesion gene sets, such as Fc gamma R-mediated phagocytosis, leukocyte trans-endothelial migration, T-cell receptor signaling pathway, cell adhesion, ECM-receptor interaction and focal adhesion associated pathways. KEGG pathway analysis of differentially expressed kinases showed T cell receptor and forkhead box class O signaling pathway were enriched. Furthermore, we found multiple protein kinases expression were dysregulated greatly after dexamethasone treatment, including classical effector of glucocorticoids stimulation-serum and glucocorticoid regulated kinase. These protein kinases are involved in multiple signaling pathways in mice kidney, such as mitogen-activated protein kinase and phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K)/Akt signaling pathway. We profiled the gene expression of the kidney from high dose dexamethasone-treated mice and provided important information for further study the mechanism of side effects of glucocorticoids in clinical therapy.