Neutral amino acid transporter SNAT2 protects renal medulla from hypertonicity-induced ferroptosis

Hypertonicity in renal medulla is essential for urine concentration and water homeostasis. However, how renal medullary collecting duct cells (MCDs) survive and function under the harsh hypertonic stress remains incompletely understood. By using the RNA-seq technique, we identified SNAT2 (slc38a2) as a novel osmoresponsive neutral amino acid transporter in MCD cells. We found that hypertonic stress induced cell death of MCDs mainly via ferroptosis. Overall design: mIMCD3 cells were cultured in either isotonic (300mOsm) or hypertonic (600mOsm) condition for 6 hours and mRNA was then extracted for RNA-Seq analysis. There are four biological replicates of cells under isotonic and hypertonic conditions respectively.