Growth factors such as hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) are highly up-regulated during development and following renal injury and are known to induce marked morphogenic actions in cultured tubular epithelial cells, including scattering, migration, single cell branching morphogenesis, and multicellular branching tubulogenesis. In the present study, we demonstrate that HGF stimulates epithelial cel...

NGAL (human neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin) and its mouse analogue 24p3 are members of the lipocalin family of small secreted proteins. These proteins are up-regulated in a number of pathological conditions, including cancers, and may function as transporters of essential factors. Although previous publications have suggested that 24p3 has pro-apoptotic functions, other data are mor...

AIMS Neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin (NGAL) is an effector molecule of the innate immune system. One of its actions is the prolongation of matrix metalloproteinase-9 (MMP-9) activity by the formation of a degradation-resistant NGAL/MMP-9 complex. We studied NGAL in human atherosclerotic lesions and we examined whether NGAL could act as a target for molecular imaging of atheroscleroti...

AIM Previous studies have shown that neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin (NGAL) is overexpressed in oesophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) and closely associated with the invasiveness of ESCC cells. Recently, NGAL receptor (NGALR) was identified from ESCC cells, and was also found to be increased in ESCC. The purpose of this study was to reveal the clinical significance of NGAL and/o...

PURPOSE Neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin (NGAL) is a protein belonging to the lipocalin superfamily and plays a role in atherosclerosis, renal injury and inflammation. The present study aimed to investigate serum NGAL concentrations in groups of patients with dipper and non-dipper hypertension (HT) and to characterize the relationship between NGAL concentration and circadian blood pre...

BACKGROUND Acute renal dysfunction (ARD) and subsequent acute renal failure after cardiac surgery are associated with high mortality and morbidity. Early therapeutic or preventive intervention is hampered by the lack of an early biomarker for acute renal injury. Recent studies showed that urinary neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin (NGAL or lipocalin 2) is up-regulated early (within 1-3 ...

PURPOSE There is growing evidence implicating that neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin (NGAL) plays a role in the development and progression of cancers. However, the effect of NGAL in colorectal carcinoma (CRC) has not been clearly elucidated. In this study, we investigated the role of NGAL in the tumorigenesis and progression of CRC and evaluated the clinical value of NGAL expression. ...

The degree of interstitial fibrosis and tubular atrophy (IFTA) is one of the strongest prognostic factors in glomerulonephritis (GN). In experimental models, high serum uric acid (UA) could contribute to IFTA through direct effects on the renal tubules, but the significance of this process has not been evaluated in patients. Urine neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin (NGAL) is produced by...

Neutrophil gelatinase associated lipocalin (NGAL) is a member of the lipocalin family and binds with iron in the presence of enterochelin. The role of NGAL is not clear but earlier experiments suggest that it acts as a bacteriostatic agent and is dramatically up regulated during acute kidney injury (AKI). Immunological studies in the literature have shown that the use of epitope specific antibo...

Iron is the fourth most common element in the Earth’s crust and is crucial for life. Over the last few years, our understanding of iron metabolism has dramatically increased due to the discovery of hepcidin, which is produced by hepatocytes and modulated in response to anemia, hypoxia and inflammation. It has been found that anemia upregulates lipocalin 2 (NGAL; neutrophil gelatinase-associated...