In this paper, the aging of the stem cells has been elucidated in the aspect of quantitative and qualitative exhaustion, such as balance self-renewal and differentiation of hematopoietic stem cells. The reduced telomere and oxidative stress both accelerate the aging course, besides, histone code and transcriptional activation lead to the DNA or protein damage. It plays an important role in the stem cell aging that the modulation of allochromosome structure and epigenetic regulation of gene transcription. If the aging of the stem cells doesn’t happen on the level of the gene, it must result from the transcription. During the haemopoiesis process of stem cells, all kinds of the transcriptional mistakes will lead to the aging of cell cycle, which is the result of allochromosome enlarging. However, the above mechanism will not occur normally. Only allochromosome allotopia is not explainable to the gene expression of stem cells. The proof of stem cells’ self-renewal evidences that if not the consequence of cell expression, allochromosome change the histone.

Objective To investigate the effects of glycogen synthase kinase-3β (GSK-3β) and β-catenin signaling on the human renal proximal tubular epithelial HK-2 cell injury induced by depleted uranium(DU),and provide a new enlightenment for the development of DU antidotes.Methods H K-2 cells were exposed to different concentrations of DU for 3-24 h,then the protein expressions of kidney injury molecule 1 (KIM-1),neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin (NGAL) and nuclear β-catenin were detected by immunofluorescence staining.The protein expressions of p-GSK-3 β(S9),GSK-3β and cmyc were detected by Western blot assay.HK-2 cells were transiently transfected by GSK-3β (KD) plasmid or treated by TDZD-8 to inhibit the activity of GSK-3β specifically.Other HK-2 cells were transiently transfected by β-catenin plasmid to overexpress the β-catenin protein.Results The percentages of KIM-1 and NGAL-positive cells increased with DU exposure time and concentrations from 300 and 600 μmol/L,and they were significantly higher than those of the blank control at 6-24 h of DU exposure (KIM-1-positive cells:t =11.06,18.97,30.49,P ＜0.05;t =6.79,16.02,85.45,P ＜ 0.05;NGAL-positive cells:t =11.78,11.37,34.29,P ＜0.05;t =7.34,21.63,36.84,P ＜0.05).In contrast,the ratio of p-GSK-3β (S9) to GSK-3β and percentage of nuclear β-catenin-positive cells were significantly higher than that of the blank control at 3-24 h of DU exposure (p-GSK-3β(S9)/GSK-3β:t =3.95,4.69,5.40,3.34,P ＜ 0.05;nuclear β-catenin-positive cells:t =4.61,6.52,36.64,14.93,P ＜ 0.05) with a maximum response at 9 h of DU exposure accompanied with corresponding increase of protein level of c-myc,a downstream target gene of β-catenin.Transient transfection of HK-2 cells with GSK-3β (KD) plasmid significantly inhibited the activity of GSK-3β (t =8.07,P ＜ 0.05) and reduced the DU-increased percentage of KIM-1-positive cells (t =24.77,P ＜ 0.05).Treatment cells with TDZD-8 inhibited the activity of GSK-3β and enhanced the percentage of nuclear β-catenin-positive cells,and it also significantly reduced the percentage of KIM-1-positive cells in HK-2 cells exposed to DU (t =6.25,6.73,P ＜ 0.05).Moreover,overexpression of β-catenin significantly reduced DU-induced cell injury (t =7.48,P ＜ 0.05).Conclusions GSK-3β/β-catenin signaling plays a key role in regulating the DU-induced cytotoxicity of HK-2 cells.Inhibition of GSK-3β activity and overexpression of β-catenin can protect the HK-2 cells from DU-induced damage.