induced fibronectin and transforming growth factor-beta1 production in human mesangial cells is p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase-dependent. Diabetes 2000; 49: 655–661 20. Cortes P, Mendez M, Riser BL et al. F-actin fiber distribution in glomerular cells: structural and functional implications. Kidney Int 2000; 58: 2452–2461 21. Burt DJ, Gruden G, Thomas SM et al. P38 mitogen-activated prote...

Fourteen cases of mesangial IgG glomerulonephritis characterized by exclusive or predominant mesangial IgG deposits are reported. The median age at onset was 19 yr (range, 13 to 47 yr). No patient exhibited evidence of systemic lupus erythematous or other systemic diseases. Proteinuria was present in all cases (median, 2.4 g/d; range, 1 to 13 g/d), microscopic hematuria in 12 cases, and macrosc...

In 40 patients with a histological diagnosis of proliferative glomerulonephritis the deposition of immunoglobulins, complement (C(3)), and fibrin/fibrinogen has been assessed by immunofluorescence and electron microscopy. The results of such examinations have been correlated with the outcome of the illness. In minor or resolving disease there is usually minor functional impairment, a good respo...

Cadmium is a potent nephrotoxin that has been shown to induce apoptosis in some cells but also to prevent it under certain circumstances. In several clinical situations and experimental models of injury to the renal glomerulus, pathological proliferation of mesangial cells is followed by resolution involving mesangial cell apoptosis. We investigated the effects of Cd(2+) on rat mesangial cells ...

To determine the role of cell-cycle proteins in regulating pathological renal hypertrophy, diabetes was induced in mice expressing a human retinoblastoma (RB) transgene and in wild-type littermates. Whole-kidney and glomerular hypertrophy caused by hyperglycemia was associated with specific G1 phase cell-cycle events: early and sustained increase in expression of cyclin D1 and activation of cyc...

Insulin-like growth factor binding protein-5 (IGFBP-5) mediates mesangial cell migration through activation of cdc42, and laminin421 binding to alpha(6)beta(1)-integrin (Berfield AK, Hansen KM, Abrass CK. Am J Physiol Cell Physiol 291: C589-C599, 2006). Because glomerular expression of laminin beta(2) is reduced in diabetic rats (Abrass CK, Spicer D, Berfield AK, St. John PL, Abrahamson DR. Am ...

OBJECTIVE To investigate the effect of ursolic acid on autophagy mediated through the miRNA-21-targeted phosphoinositide 3 kinase (PI3K)/protein kinase B (Akt)/mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) pathway in rat mesangial cells cultured under high glucose (HG) conditions. METHODS Rat glomerular mesangial cells were cultured under normal glucose, HG, HG with the PI3K inhibitor LY294002 or HG w...