Ureteral involvement by endometriosis is a rare and often silent disease but capable of producing significant morbidity and leading to hydronephrosis and to renal failure. Surgery is the treatment of choice to remove endometriotic lesions and relieve ureteral obstruction if the kidney is still functional or a nephrectomy is performed if there is a complete loss of renal function. We report a ca...

The wt-1 gene encodes a zinc finger DNA-binding protein that acts as a transcriptional activator or repressor depending on the cellular or chromosomal context. The wt-1 regulates the expression of a large number of genes that have a critical role in kidney development. Congenital obstructive nephropathy disrupts normal renal development and causes chronic progressive interstitial fibrosis, whic...

BACKGROUND Interleukin 18 (IL-18) is a pro-inflammatory cytokine that mediates fibrotic renal injury during obstruction. Macrophages are a well-known source of IL-18; however, renal tubular epithelial cells are also a potential source of this cytokine. We hypothesized that IL-18 is predominantly a renal tubular cell product and is produced during renal obstruction independent of macrophage infi...

Kidney fibrosis, a typical characteristic of chronic renal disease, is associated with tubular epithelial cell apoptosis. The results of our recent studies have shown that Omi/HtrA2 (Omi), a proapoptotic mitochondrial serine protease, performs a crucial function in renal tubular epithelial apoptotic cell death in animal models of acute kidney injury, including cisplatin toxicity and ischemia-re...

Identification of new biomarkers and drug targets for chronic kidney disease (CKD) is required for the development of more effective therapy. Here we report an association between expression of reticulon 1 (RTN1) and severity of CKD. An isoform-specific increase in the expression of RTN1A is detected in the diseased kidneys from mice and humans, and correlates inversely with renal function in p...

Misseri, R., D. R. Meldrum, C. A. Dinarello, P. Dagher, K. L. Hile, R. C. Rink, and K. K. Meldrum. TNFmediates obstructioninduced renal tubular cell apoptosis and proapoptotic signaling. Am J Physiol Renal Physiol 288: F406–F411, 2005. First published October 26, 2004; doi:10.1152/ajprenal.00099.2004.—Obstruction of the upper urinary tract induces a progressive loss in renal mass through apopto...