Pentoxifylline (PTX) is a potent inhibitor of mesangial cell proliferation, but its underlying mechanism is poorly understood. Here, we demonstrate that in platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF)-stimulated mesangial cells, PTX causes G1 arrest by down-regulation of cyclin D1 expression, which subsequently attenuates Cdk4 activity. In vivo, PTX similarly reduces cyclin D1 expression in mesangial ...

BACKGROUND/AIMS IgA nephropathy (IgAN) is the most common form of primary glomerulonephritis, and often aggravates by mucosal infection. Secretory IgA (SIgA) is the dominant immunoglobulin in mucosal immunity, and is deposited in the mesangium in IgAN. The biological effects of SIgA on mesangial cells are poorly understood. METHODS Deposition of SIgA in frozen renal sections from IgAN patient...

Hyperlipidemia in conjunction with uninephrectomy leads to renal injury in rats. It is unknown whether this is due to mesangial cell or podocyte injury and whether the injuries induced by hypercholesterolemia and hypertriglyceridemia share a similar pathogenesis. Therefore, renal effects of hypercholesterolemia were studied in male rats with dietary hypercholesterolemia compared with rats on a ...

Our understanding of the cell-cycle mechanisms has progressively advanced in the past few years. Cyclins and cyclin-dependent kinases play major roles as positive cell-cycle regulatory proteins and CDK inhibitors; while the Kip family and INK4 family are negative regulatory proteins in mesangial cells and renal tubular cells. An understanding of the cell cycle is essential for the rational desi...

of bone marrow-derived cells to differentiate to glomerular mesangial cells. Extraglomerular origin of the mesangial cells after injury. marrow is a reservoir of repopulating mesangial cells during glomerular remodelling. A, Plati AR et al. Glomerulosclerosis is transmitted by bone marrow-derived mesangial cell progenitors. Bone marrow transplantation attenuates murine IgA nephropathy: role of ...

Mesangial cells undergo cell death both by apoptosis and necrosis during glomerular disease. Since nucleotides are released from injured and destroyed cells in the glomerulus, we examined whether extracellular ATP and its receptors may regulate cell death of cultured mesangial cells. Addition of extracellular ATP (300 μM to 5 mM) to cultured rat mesangial cells for 90 min caused a 5.8-fold incr...

The functions of the glomerular mesangium are served by at least two populations of cells--a cell bearing microfilaments that regulates blood flow, and a phagocytic cell bearing Ia determinants and Fc receptors. We provide evidence that mouse mesangial cells (bearing microfilaments) produce a factor(s) that stimulates spleen cell proliferation. The factor(s) appears to act via monocytes/macroph...

Histamine influences the glomerular microcirculation and modulates immune-inflammatory responses. In the rat kidney, histamine is synthesized by glomeruli and stimulates cyclic nucleotide production specifically in glomeruli. We investigated the in vitro effect of histamine on cyclic nucleotide accumulation in rat cultured glomerular mesangial and epithelial cells. Histamine stimulated cyclic A...