Urine neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin as a biomarker of acute kidney injury and prognosis in decompensated chronic liver disease: A prospective study.

Background: Acute kidney injury (AKI) heralds deterioration in patients with decompensated chronic liver disease (DCLD). Serum creatinine (sCr), a component of the model for end-stage liver disease-sodium (MELD-Na) prognostic score, has limitations in patients with DCLD. We evaluated the prognostic role of urine neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin (NGAL) in DCLD and its ability to sub-type AKI.

Microbial metabolism of pyrazines.

Pyrazines are a group of 1,4 dinitrogen substituted benzenes. They have near ubiquitous biological distribution and majority are anthropogenic. The demand for pyrazines in the recent years has increased owing to their vast applications in the field of food, agriculture and medicine.

Reductive degradation of pyrazine-2-carboxylate by a newly isolated Stenotrophomonas sp. HCU1.

A bacterium growing on pyrazine-2-carboxylate broth was isolated, purified and identified as a strain of Stenotrophomonas sp. based on polyphasic taxonomic analyses and designated as strain HCU1. 16S rRNA gene sequence of strain HCU1 showed 98.