Caveolin-2 in urine as a novel biomarker of renal recovery after cisplatin induced nephrotoxicity in rats

•The recovery from AKI has prognostic importance.•Cav-2 in urine is a novel biomarker of renal recovery after cisplatin induced AKI.•Urinary Cav-2 selectively responds to the etiology of the renal insult.•Changes in Cav-2 renal expression could regulate renal physiopathology.•Urinary Cav-2 could contribute to a panel of biomarkers to predict renal recovery. Acute kidney injury (AKI) is a heterogeneous clinical syndrome with diverse outcomes. The recovery from AKI has prognostic importance. Little research has been done in order to find biomarkers that can predict recovery from AKI. Cav-2 is one of the main constituents of caveolae and is expressed in kidney. This study analyzed the time course of Cav-2 urinary excretion and renal expression in rats treated with cisplatin. Male Wistar rats were injected with cisplatin (5 mg/kg b.w., i.p.), and the studies were performed after 2, 4 and 14 days. Cav-2 abundance was evaluated in urine, in renal homogenates and in apical membranes by Western blotting. Cav-2 in urine was increased only 14 days after treatment, in the recovery phase of cisplatin-induced AKI. These results show that Cav-2 in urine could be useful as a biomarker of renal recovery, but not as an early biomarker of cisplatin-induced AKI. Cav-2 expression in total renal homogenates was not modified with treatment, but a down-regulation of Cav-2 in apical membranes was observed in treated animals. We hypothesize that Cav-2 internalizes into renal cells from their apical membrane in response to cisplatin, and regulates in this manner different signaling proteins involved in the physiopathology of renal damage.