The Expression of EPOR in Renal Cortex during Postnatal Development

Erythropoietin (EPO), known for its role in erythroid differentiation, has been shown to be an important growth factor for brain and heart. EPO is synthesized by fibroblast-like cells in the renal cortex. Prompted by this anatomical relationship and its significant impact on the maturation process of brain and heart, we asked whether EPO could play a role during the development of renal cortex. The relationship between the development of renal cortex and the change of EPO receptor (EPOR), through which EPO could act as a renotropic cytokine, became interesting to us. In this study, the day of birth was recorded as postnatal day 0(P0). P7, P14, P21, P28, P35, P42 and mature mice (postnatal days>56) were used as the animal model of different developmental stages. Immunohistochemistry and Western blotting were used to detect the expression of EPOR in mouse renal cortex. Results showed that expression of EPOR decreased with the development of renal cortex and became stable when kidney became mature. The expression of EPOR was detected at the renal tubule of all developmental stages and a relatively higher expression was observed at P14. However, at the renal corpuscle the expression was only observed at P7 and quickly became undetectable after that. All these suggested that a translocation of EPOR from renal corpuscle to renal tubule may take place during the developmental process of renal cortex. Also, EPO may be an essential element for the maturation of renal cortex, and the requirement for EPO was changed during postnatal development process.