OBJECTIVE Toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4) plays a central role in innate immunity. Activation of innate immune response and subsequent chronic low-grade inflammation are thought to be involved in the pathogenesis of diabetic nephropathy. In this study, we aimed to investigate whether TLR4 variants are associated with diabetic nephropathy in the Chinese population. METHODS Seven tagging single nuc...

t is still controversial whether off-pump coronary artery bypass grafting (OPCAB) is more effective than conventional on-pump coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) in the population of poor prognosis patients. OPCAB is the most common strategy of CABG for lowrisk patients in Japan,1 but often there are patients with severe complications who require CABG and for whom either on-pump or off-pump ...

OBJECTIVE Chronic renal insufficiency and/or proteinuria in type 2 diabetes may stem from chronic renal diseases (CKD) other than classic diabetic nephropathy in more than one-third of patients. We interrogated urine proteomic profiles generated by surface-enhanced laser desorption/ionization-time of flight/mass spectrometry with the aim of isolating a set of biomarkers able to reliably identif...

The renin–angiotensin–aldosterone system (RAAS) cascade has a significant effect on several systems. Angiotensin II (AngII) appeared as not only vasoactive peptide but also multifunctional cytokine that displays non-hemodynamic properties beyond renal hemodynamic properties. kidney includes total components of the RAAS such aldosterone and AngII adjust hemodynamics reabsorption sodium activatin...

Diagnosis of transplant dysfunction usually requires kidney biopsy. Sidgel et al. compared urinary proteomics with matched kidney biopsies to develop a biomarker panel to differentiate acute rejection, BK viral nephropathy, and chronic allograft nephropathy. The results suggest that monitoring a panel of urinary peptides may ultimately facilitate noninvasive diagnosis and management of common t...

Chronic renal allograft disease remains a leading cause of graft loss. Immunologic and non-immunologic risk factors are related to its development and may be present before or develop after transplantation. Histological evaluation of renal tissue has an important role in the management, especially for the evaluation of immune activity against the graft and toxicity of immunosuppressive drugs. M...

Despite increasing numbers of patients on dialysis, the numbers of renal transplants performed yearly have remained relatively static. During the last 50 years, there have been many advances in the pharmacology of prevention of organ rejection. However, most patients will suffer from a slow but steady decline in renal function leading to graft loss. The most common cause of long-term graft loss...

This paper presents a study of renal function in I02 patients with lead poisoning admitted to the Occupational Diseases Clinic in Bucharest during the past IO years; nearly half the patients had no history of lead colic. Every possible cause of renal damage, other than lead, was excluded by a careful differential diagnosis. Renal function was investigated by repeated determinations of blood ure...