Lowering a protein reduced kidney injury in young but not aged mice
In a three-day experiment, reducing a protein on fat-storage droplets protected young mice’s kidneys from cisplatin, a chemotherapy drug, but did not protect 20-month-old mice.
Our read
Mechanisms- Studied:
- Experiments in young and aged mice, three days, against control mice given cisplatin
- What changed:
- Reducing perilipin 2 lowered kidney injury in young mice compared with control mice, but did not protect aged mice
- The catch:
- Kidney injury was assessed only three days after cisplatin
- In the record:
- One of 30 papers on PLIN2 on record: 3 with results in people, 2 in animals.
Editor of record: Boris Djordjevic · AgingResearch.News
Young male and female C57BL/6 mice and 20-month-old mice underwent an experiment targeting perilipin 2, a protein on fat-storage droplets inside cells. Researchers gave a gene-silencing injection at 1 milligram per kilogram one day before a single cisplatin dose of 30 milligrams per kilogram. They assessed kidney injury three days after cisplatin.
Compared with control mice given cisplatin, young mice with reduced perilipin 2 had better blood-test results for kidney function, less tissue damage, fewer dying kidney cells and less inflammation. Reducing the protein did not protect aged mice, even though cisplatin increased its levels more strongly in aged kidneys. Protein measurements in young mice suggested enhanced ketogenesis, the production of ketones, an alternative fuel.
Why it matters
Cisplatin-related kidney injury can limit cancer treatment, particularly in older patients. The authors concluded that age-related differences in kidneys’ ability to adjust fuel use matter for vulnerability to injury and responses to potential therapies.
Caveats
This was a short-term mouse experiment, with gene silencing given before cisplatin rather than after injury developed. It did not test whether reducing perilipin 2 protects people receiving chemotherapy.
The paper
Perilipin 2 drives cisplatin-induced acute kidney injury in young but not aged kidneys
University of Connecticut
American Journal of Physiology Renal Physiology, Aug 11, 2026, Open access
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