Renal pathological changes of diabetes include thickening of all renal extracellular basement membranes and the mesangial matrix and, to a lesser extent, mesangial cell expansion. Two renal lesions appear critical in diabetic nephropathy. Mesangial expansion out of proportion to the size of the glomerulus is related to proteinuria, hypertension, and declining GFR. Arteriolar hyalinosis is relat...

The renal microvasculature is targeted during aging, sometimes producing chronic kidney disease (CKD). Overdiagnosis of CKD in older persons is concerning. To prevent it, a new concept of "healthy aging" is arising from a healthy renal donor study. We investigated the renal microcirculatory changes of three older persons and compared them with that of one patient with nephrosclerosis using a th...

Renal insufficiency in essential hypertension represents the expression of a medium- and small-size arteriolopathy characterized by intimal hyperplasia, hyalinosis, and smooth muscle cell hypertrophy (nephroangiosclerosis). Because in animal models endothelial dysfunction plays a role in this alteration, nephroangiosclerosis and the attendant renal insufficiency may be the expression of a syste...

It is currently unclear whether hypertensive nephrosclerosis (HN), usually diagnosed solely on clinical grounds, is a relevant cause of end-stage renal disease. We biopsied 81 hypertensive outpatients (blood pressure >/=160/95 mm Hg) with moderate renal insufficiency, who were referred to our service from 1988 to 1998. Patients with known causes of hypertension, systemic disorders, rheumatic di...

Patients suffering from Urbach-Wiethe syndrome (UWS), also known as lipoid proteinosis or hyalinosis cutis et mucosae, may have an ophthalmologist involved in the diagnosis and management of their disease. Along with moniliform blepharosis as a pathognomonic feature of the disease, an ophthalmologist may encounter other manifestations of UWS in any part of the eye such as cornea; conjunctiva; s...

The lack of an appropriate animal model that spontaneously develops diabetic nephropathy has been a significant limitation in the search for genetic factors underlying this disease and the development of new therapeutic strategies to prevent progressive renal disease in diabetes. We introgressed the mitochondria and some passenger loci from the FHH/EurMcwi rat into the genetic background of dia...

Studies were performed to determine whether sympathetic nerves protect against stroke in hypertensive rats. The superior cervical ganglion was removed on one side in 28 stroke-prone spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHRSP) when the rats were 4 weeks old. The rats were fed Japanese rat chow and 1% saline drinking water. When the rats were 19 weeks old, systolic pressure was 206 ± 4 mm Hg (mean ± ...

Anthrax toxin is released from Bacillus anthracis as three monomeric proteins, which assemble into toxic complexes at the surface of receptor-bearing host cells. One of the proteins, protective antigen (PA), binds to receptors and orchestrates the delivery of the other two (the lethal and edema factors) into the cytosol. PA has been shown to bind to two cellular receptors: anthrax toxin recepto...

The first joint Japanese Society of Toxicologic Pathology (JSTP) and National Toxicology Program (NTP) Satellite Symposium, entitled "Pathology Potpourri," was held on January 29(th) at Okura Frontier Hotel in Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan, in advance of the JSTP's 29(th) Annual Meeting. The goal of this Symposium was to present current diagnostic pathology or nomenclature issues to the toxicologic p...