Effects of combination therapy with angiotensin II type I receptor blockers and calcium channel blockers on renal function in hypertensive patients/a retrospective, "real-world" comparative study.

Background: Combination therapies with angiotensin II type I receptor blockers (ARBs) and calcium channel blockers (CCBs) are frequently administered to hypertensive patients, because these regimens have renoprotective and antihypertensive effects. However, few studies have focused on the renoprotective effects of individual CCBs when combined with ARBs for hypertension.

Methods: Two hundred eighty-six outpatients prescribed three different CCBs (benidipine [CAS 91599-74-5], amlodipine [CAS 111470-99-6] and controlled release nifedipine (nifedipine CR) [CAS 21829-25-4]) for hypertension in combination with ARBs during a 4-year period were registered in a retrospective comparative study.

Effects of low molecular weight heparin on the frequencies of intradialytic arrhythmias in hemodialysis patients.

Arrhythmia is known to cause sudden death in hemodialysis patients. Heparin administration releases lipoprotein lipase from the capillary endothelial cell surface, resulting in an increase in the plasma levels of free fatty acids; higher levels of free fatty acids may affect the occurrence of arrhythmias. This study assessed whether the occurrence of arrhythmias during hemodialysis could be suppressed by replacing unfractionated heparin with low molecular weight heparin.

NO-1886 (ibrolipim), a lipoprotein lipase activator, increases the expression of uncoupling protein 3 in skeletal muscle and suppresses fat accumulation in high-fat diet-induced obesity in rats.

Although the lipoprotein lipase (LPL) activator NO-1886 shows antiobesity effects in high-fat-induced obese animals, the mechanism remains unclear. To clarify the mechanism, we studied the effects of NO-1886 on the expression of uncoupling protein (UCP) 1, UCP2, and UCP3 in rats. NO-1886 was mixed with a high-fat chow to supply a dose of 100 mg/kg to 8-month-old male Sprague-Dawley rats.

The increase of antiglomerular basement membrane antibody following pauci-immune-type crescentic glomerulonephritis.

A 50-year-old woman was admitted because of high fever and fatigue. Proteinuria, hematuria, and elevated BUN (47.8 mg/dl) and creatinine (3.

[Extracellular-superoxide dismutase production in mesangial cell growing in extracellular matrix].

To study the protective function against oxygen radicals in the mesangial area, we assessed extracellular superoxide dismutase (EC-SOD) production in mesangial cells (MCs) in vitro. These cells have a major protective function against oxygen radicals in the extracellular space. In two different kinds of culture conditions: "growth medium" with fetal cow serum, and "differentiation medium" with reduced growth factor, and four extracellular matrixes; type I collagen, type IV collagen, laminin and fibronectin, were added to the MC culture.