SGK1: Aldosterone-Induced Relay of Na+ Transport Regulation in Distal Kidney Nephron Cells

Aldosterone increases within 30 min renal Na + reabsorption and K + secretion by a mechanism that is triggered at the level of gene transcription. Thus, gene products that are rapidly up- or down-regulated transmit this effect to the transport machinery within the distal nephron target cells. One such rapidly up-regulated gene product is a structural element of the transport machinery, namely the a subunit of ENaC. Its amount might in certain conditions play a rate limiting role for Na + transport. Cell-surface localization and function of ENaC and of the Na,K-ATPase are also tightly controlled by a complex regulatory network and aldosterone appears to acutely regulate the expression of elements of this network such as the small G-protein K-Ras (in A6 cells) and the kinase SGK1 (also in ENaC-expressing cells of the mammalian distal nephron). The kinase SGK1 is an early aldosterone-induced protein that relays signals from pathways that are transmitted via PDK1/2 and possibly PKA. Active SGK1 has been shown to increase ENaC and Na,K-ATPase cell-surface expression in Xenopus oocytes. This effect at the level of ENaC has been recently shown to be mediated by the ubiquitin ligase Nedd4-2 which is a direct target of SGK1. Once phosphorylated by SGK1, Nedd4-2 is prevented from interacting with ENaC and thus from decreasing ENaC cell-surface expression. This SGK1-Nedd4-2-ENaC pathway is the first direct link between aldosterone-induced transcriptional regulation and the function of the Na + transport machinery to be unravelled. The physiological importance of this pathway for mediating the aldosterone response in different target epithelia remains to be verified in vivo, in particular in view of the axial gradient of ENaC apical translocation observed along the aldosterone-sensitive distal nephron.