Chronic hypoxia exacerbates diabetic glomerulosclerosis through mesangiolysis and podocyte injury in db/db mice.

Background: Chronic hypoxia may play a pivotal role in the development of diabetic nephropathy (DN). However, the precise mechanisms underlying progressive hypoxia-induced glomerular injury remain unclear.

Methods: We housed db/db mice in a hypoxia chamber (12% O2) for up to 16 weeks beginning at 8 weeks of age.

Telmisartan, a possible PPAR-δ agonist, reduces TNF-α-stimulated VEGF-C production by inhibiting the p38MAPK/HSP27 pathway in human proximal renal tubular cells.

Vascular endothelial growth factor-C (VEGF-C) is a main inducer of inflammation-associated lymphangiogenesis in various inflammatory disorders including chronic progressive kidney diseases, for which angiotensin II receptor type 1 blockers (ARBs) are widely used as the main treatment. Although proximal renal tubular cells may affect the formation of lymphatic vessels in the interstitial area by producing VEGF-C, the molecular mechanisms of VEGF-C production and its manipulation by ARB have not yet been examined in human proximal renal tubular epithelial cells (HPTECs). In the present study, TNF-α dose-dependently induced the production of VEGF-C in HPTECs.

A specific serum IgA antibody discriminates pneumonia from colonization state in patients with Pseudomonas aeruginosa in sputum culture.

We attempted to develop a new specific antibody detection method for discriminating infection state from colonization state in hospitalized immunocompromised patients with a positive sputum culture for Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Serum samples from 65 patients with P. aeruginosa in sputum culture (total PA patients), including 24 patients with P.

Hypoxia reduces the expression and anti-inflammatory effects of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-gamma in human proximal renal tubular cells.

Background: Peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor (PPAR)-gamma may counteract tissue fibrosis via its anti-inflammatory actions, while hypoxia, a new pro-fibrotic factor, reportedly modifies PPAR-gamma expression. However, the effects of hypoxia on the expression and anti-inflammatory actions of PPAR-gamma have yet remained to be clarified in renal tubular cells.

Methods: Confluent human proximal renal tubular epithelial cells (HPTECs) were exposed to hypoxia (1% O2) and/or TNF-alpha at 10 ng/ml for up to 48 h.

Hypoxia reduces constitutive and TNF-alpha-induced expression of monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 in human proximal renal tubular cells.

Chronic hypoxia has been reported to be associated with macrophage infiltration in progressive forms of kidney disease. Here, we investigated the regulatory effects of hypoxia on constitutive and TNF-alpha-stimulated expression of monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 (MCP-1) in cultured human proximal renal tubular cells (HPTECs). Hypoxia reduced constitutive MCP-1 expression at the mRNA and protein levels in a time-dependent fashion for up to 48 h.