Diabetic nephropathy produces alterations in the tissue expression profile of the orphan receptors GPR149, GPR153, GPR176, TAAR3, TAAR5 and TAAR9 in Wistar rats

Diabetes mellitus is a debilitating health care problem affecting 382 million people around the world and one of the most common complications is diabetic nephropathy. For this reason, it is important to try to identify new mechanisms that could be involved in diabetes. A new class of receptors has been reported, called orphan receptors because the associated ligand and signaling cascades are unknown. These receptors could be an important source of targets for the treatment of many diseases such as diabetes and its associated complications like diabetic nephropathy. Therefore, the aim of this work was to study expression of the orphan receptors GPR149, GPR153, GPR176, TAAR3, TAAR5 and TAAR9 in the kidney of diabetic rats. We used male Wistar rats at 10–12 weeks of age. Diabetes was induced by a single dose of streptozotocin (60 mg/kg i.p.). After 4 weeks, tissues were obtained, and the expression of the mRNAs was measured by RT-PCR. Our results showed that the orphan receptors are expressed in a different way in the kidney. In conclusion, we suggest that orphan receptors could be involved in the development of diabetic nephropathy.