Tubulointerstitial fibrosis and inflammation are hallmarks of chronic kidney disease (CKD). Key among the up-stream drivers pathobiology is hypoxia, resulting in cellular stress. Hypoxia particularly damaging to proximal tubule epithelial cells (PTEC) due their high metabolic activity, release danger-signals cell death. We previously identified an activated innate immune population CD1c+ dendri...

Death-associated protein kinase (DAPK) is a key player in multiple cell death signaling pathways. We report that DAPK is regulated by DANGER, a partial MAB-21 domain-containing protein. DANGER binds directly to DAPK and inhibits DAPK catalytic activity. DANGER-deficient mouse embryonic fibroblasts and neurons exhibit greater DAPK activity and increased sensitivity to cell death stimuli than do ...