Impaired 11-beta hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase type 2 activity in sweat gland ducts in human essential hypertension.

The enzyme 11-beta hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase type 2 plays a major role in blood pressure regulation. It metabolizes glucocorticoid hormones into derivatives with low affinity for the mineralocorticoid receptor, preventing its permanent occupancy by circulating cortisol, which is 100- to 1000-fold more abundant than aldosterone in the plasma. Inactivating mutations of the enzyme result in severe hypertension, as seen in children with apparent mineralocorticoid excess syndrome.

[Progressive renal failure caused by lithium nephropathy].

Objectives: Study the renal consequences of lithium therapy and find out whether lithium-induced chronic renal toxicity can provoke a progressive nephropathy, leading to advanced renal failure, requiring periodical dialysis.

Methods: Fifty-three patients treated with long-term lithium salts were included in the study. They had developed chronic renal failure (creatinine clearance inferior to 80 ml/min) not due to any other cause.

Dramatic improvement of renal dysfunction in a human immunodeficiency virus-infected woman treated with highly active antiretroviral therapy.

We report a single case documenting substantial improvement in the course of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-associated, biopsy-proven nephropathy after introduction of highly active antiretroviral therapy. Our case report joins several others recording improvement or stabilization in the course of nephropathy following better control of HIV replication.

Screening of renal artery stenosis: assessment with magnetic resonance angiography at 1.0 T.

The results of MR angiography at 1.0 T with digital intraarterial angiography in the screening of patients with suspected renal hypertension were compared. In this first phase of the study, 10 volunteers underwent examination with both two-dimensional (2D) with traveling saturation time-of-flight (TOF) magnetic resonance angiography (MRA) with various parameters to develop a protocol for evaluation of the renal arteries.

Characteristics and regulation of 11 beta-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase of proximal and distal nephron.

Enzymatic properties of the enzyme 11 beta-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase (11-HSD), which confers mineralocorticoid selectivity, have been explored in the aldosterone-sensitive collecting duct (CCD) and the aldosterone-insensitive Pars Recta (PR) of the rat kidney. After incubation of freshly isolated tubular segments with [3H]corticosterone (3H-B) or [3H]dehydrocorticosterone (3H-A), the rate of transformation of 3H-B into 3H-A (dehydrogenase activity), or the reverse reaction (reductase activity) were measured by HPLC, Vmax for dehydrogenase activity was found to be 8- to 10-fold higher in CCD than PR. The enzyme functions over a very wide range (0.