Posterior reversible encephalopathy syndrome (PRES) associated with SARS-CoV-2 infection in a patient under maintenance haemodialysis: a case report.

Background: Endothelial dysfunction is common in patients undergoing chronic haemodialysis, and is a major cause of posterior reversible encephalopathy syndrome (PRES). Recently, Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has been shown to cause endothelial dysfunction by infecting vascular endothelial cells. Several cases of neurological complications in patients without kidney dysfunction, and only a few cases in patients with chronic kidney disease, have been reported in the literature.

Fanconi syndrome in an elderly patient with membranous nephropathy during treatment with the immunosuppressant mizoribine.

We report on an 80-year-old man diagnosed with Fanconi syndrome induced by mizoribine after 4 weeks of administration to treat membranous nephropathy. Mizoribine is an oral immunosuppressant that inhibits inosine monophosphate dehydrogenase and is widely used in Japan for the treatment of autoimmune diseases and nephrotic syndrome, as well as after renal transplantation. Acquired Fanconi syndrome is often caused by drugs (antibacterial, antiviral, anticancer, and anticonvulsant drugs) and is sometimes caused by autoimmune diseases, monoclonal light chain-associated diseases, or heavy metal poisoning.

Preemptive HLA Antibody Screening Prior to Episodic Transplant Renal Biopsy Enables Early Diagnosis and Therapeutic Response in Asymptomatic Chronically Active Antibody-Related Rejection: A Case Report.

Common management of renal transplant recipients includes episodic renal biopsy based on clinical findings such as an increase in proteinuria or serum creatinine. When antibody-related rejection is suspected from the renal biopsy, subsequent testing for donor-specific antibodies (DSAs) is performed. We instead performed preemptive screening of asymptomatic post-renal transplant recipients for DSAs prior to renal biopsy.

Analytical and clinical validation of rapid chemiluminescence enzyme immunoassay for urinary thioredoxin, an oxidative stress-dependent early biomarker of acute kidney injury.

Background: Oxidative stress is now recognized to be an important therapeutic target in kidney diseases. However, there are currently no biomarkers that can be used clinically to diagnose renal oxidative stress.

Methods: A rapid assay system for urinary thioredoxin 1, an oxidative stress-dependent biomarker of acute kidney injury (AKI), was developed as a chemiluminescence enzyme immunoassay and validated analytically and clinically.

Elevated Levels of Urinary Extracellular Vesicle Fibroblast-Specific Protein 1 in Patients with Active Crescentic Glomerulonephritis.

Background/aims: Extracellular vesicles (EVs), including exosomes, are present in various bodily fluids, including urine. We and others previously reported that cells expressing fibroblast-specific protein 1 (FSP1) accumulate within damaged glomeruli, and that urinary FSP1, as well as urinary soluble CD163, could potentially serve as a biomarker of ongoing glomerular injury.

Methods: To test that idea, we collected urine samples from 37 patients with glomerular disease; purified the urinary EVs; characterized them using Nanosight, western blotting, and immunoelectron microscopy; and determined FSP1 and soluble CD163 levels using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays.

Tubulointerstitial Nephritis with IgM-Positive Plasma Cells.

Infiltration by IgG-positive plasma cells is a common finding in tubulointerstitial nephritis. Indeed, it has been thought that CD138-positive mature plasma cells secrete mainly IgG, and the occurrence of tubulointerstitial nephritis with CD138-positive plasma cells secreting IgM has rarely been reported. Routine immunofluorescence of fresh frozen sections is considered the gold standard for detection of immune deposits.

Mutated D4-guanine diphosphate-dissociation inhibitor is found in human leukemic cells and promotes leukemic cell invasion.

Objective: Rho GTPase may be involved in human cancer invasion via the augmentation of cell motility and adhesion. We report on two point mutations of the D4-guanine diphosphate (GDP)-dissociation inhibitor (GDI) gene, one of the Rho-GDIs, which were found in a human leukemic cell line, Reh, and the mutated D4-GDI functions as an accelerator of leukemic cell invasion.

Material And Methods: We investigated the altered activity of GDP dissociation by mutated (mt) D4-GDI and the functions of this mt and wild-type (wt) D4-GDI in invasion.

Anxiety measurements in university students undergoing third molar extraction.

Objective: This investigation was conducted to quantitate the anxiety associated with third molar extraction in university students, and to compare the measured anxiety before and after extraction and between men and women, first and second extraction, and impacted versus nonimpacted tooth extraction.

Study Design: The Japanese version of The State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI), a psychological test, was given to 108 students undergoing third molar extraction. The students completed the test on the first examination (day 1), immediately before the extraction (day 2), and the day after the extraction (day 3).

Exposure of HEp-2 cells to stress conditions influences antinuclear antibody reactivity.

This study of stress-related antinuclear antibody (ANA) reactivity was undertaken with the objective of improving clinical ANA testing. ANA was determined by parallel enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays of crude nuclear protein antigen extracted from HEp-2 cells either grown under optimal conditions (providing nonstress ANA antigen) or exposed to stress (providing stress ANA antigen). The stress stimuli used were gamma radiation (causing DNA damage) and a hypertonic environment (causing apoptosis).