Chronic kidney disease is promoted by a variety of factors that induce chronic inflammation and fibrosis. Inflammation and excessive scaring have been recently associated with disruptions of the gap junction-mediated intercellular communication. Nevertheless, little is known about alterations of the expression of gap junction proteins such as connexin (Cx) 43 and 37 in chronic renal disease. In...

INTEREST in unilateral renal disease as a possible cause of human hypertension originated with Goldblatt 's classic experiments.' In 1937, Butlerreported the clinieal cure of hypertension following nephrectomy in two cases of unilateral, pyelonephritis with vascular disease in children. In recent years it has been recognized that many cases of human hypertension are on the basis of unilateral r...

Congenital obstructive nephropathy is the primary cause of end-stage renal disease in children. Rapid diagnosis and initiation of the treatment are vital to preserve function and/or to slow down renal injury. Obstructive uropathy effects -decline in the plasmatic renal flow and glomerular filtration rate, interstitial infiltrate of leukocytes, significant decrease of the urine concentration, lo...

Toll-like receptors (TLRs) can orchestrate an inflammatory response upon activation by pathogen-associated motifs and release of endogenous stress ligands during tissue injury. The kidney constitutively expresses most TLRs, including TLR4. The function of TLR4 during the inflammation, tubular atrophy, and fibrosis that accompany progressive renal injury is unknown. Here, we subjected wild-type ...

Docherty, Neil G., Orfhlaith E. O’Sullivan, Declan A. Healy, John M. Fitzpatrick, and R. William G. Watson. Evidence that inhibition of tubular cell apoptosis protects against renal damage and development of fibrosis following ureteric obstruction. Am J Physiol Renal Physiol 290: F4–F13, 2006; doi:10.1152/ ajprenal.00045.2005.—Ureteric obstruction is frequently encountered in primary care urolo...

Injury to the renal microvasculature may be a major factor in the progression of renal disease; therefore, protection of endothelial cells (EC) in renal vasculature may have a therapeutic role in renal fibrosis. Recently, a soluble, stable, and potent angiopoietin-1 (Ang1) variant, cartilage oligomeric matrix protein (COMP)-Ang1, was developed. The contribution of COMP-Ang1 in renal interstitia...

Abstract Background and Aims Inhibitors of protein tyrosine kinases has been investigated as potential anti-fibrotic agents. 4A1 belongs to a sub-class three prenylated kinases. known promoting growth migration tumor cells. The role little in kidney. We evaluated whether the could be target renal fibrosis. Method 10 weeks old male background KO mice wild type were divided into 4 groups; wild, K...

The goal of the present study was to evaluate the role of endoglin, a transforming growth factor-beta1 (TGF-beta1) accessory receptor, in the pathogenesis of renal fibrosis. This was achieved by testing a model of tubulo-interstitial fibrosis induced by unilateral ureteral obstruction in endoglin heterozygous (Eng(+/-)) mice. Northern and Western blot analysis revealed that endoglin expression ...

Chronic unilateral ureteral obstruction (UUO) in the neonatal rat causes delayed renal maturation, tubular apoptosis, and interstitial inflammation. Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) acts as a survival factor for tubular cells and reduces renal injury in several models of renal disease. To determine whether exogenous VEGF attenuates renal injury from UUO, rats were subjected within the ...