Marked improvement by high-dose chemotherapy and autologous stem cell transplantation in a case of light chain deposition disease.

A 55-year-old woman presented with heavy proteinuria (6.2 g/day) in April 2007. Because monoclonal IgG-k was detected in serum and urine samples, bone marrow aspiration and renal biopsy were performed.

The oxalate level in ultrafiltrate fluid collected from a dialyzer is useful for estimating the plasma oxalate level in hemodialysis patients.

Background: Patients on chronic hemodialysis are likely to develop secondary hyperoxalemia. It is, however, difficult to measure plasma oxalate levels. To measure plasma oxalate levels, rapid plasma separation, deproteinization, and acidification are essential in preventing the formation of oxalate and the deposition of calcium oxalate within the test tube.

Role of receptor for advanced glycation end-products and signalling events in advanced glycation end-product-induced monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 expression in differentiated mouse podocytes.

Background: Upregulation of local monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 (MCP-1) production is involved in glomerular damage through macrophage recruitment and activation in diabetic nephropathy. Treatment of db/db mice with soluble receptor for advanced glycation end-products (RAGE) prevented recruitment of macrophages to the glomeruli and reduced albuminuria, suggesting that binding of ligands and RAGE may be involved in MCP-1 expression. Therefore, we investigated the role of advanced glycation end-products (AGEs) in MCP-1 production by podocytes and signalling events after RAGE activation.

MAP-LC3, a promising autophagosomal marker, is processed during the differentiation and recovery of podocytes from PAN nephrosis.

Microtubule-associated protein 1 light chain 3 (LC3) is a unique modifier protein. LC3-I, the cytosolic form, is modified to LC3-II, the membrane-bound form, by a mechanism similar to ubiquitylation by E1- and E2-like enzymes, Apg7p and Apg3p, respectively. In the present study, we found that LC3-I is processed to LC3-II during the differentiation and recovery from puromycin aminonucleoside-induced nephrosis of podocytes.

Mammalian Apg12p, but not the Apg12p.Apg5p conjugate, facilitates LC3 processing.

A dynamic membrane rearrangement occurs in cells during autophagy to form autophagosomes. In this dynamic process, two ubiquitin-like modifications, Apg12p-conjugation and LC3-modification, are essential for the formation of autophagosomes. Apg7p and Apg10p catalyze the conjugation of Apg12p to Apg5p.

Murine Apg12p has a substrate preference for murine Apg7p over three Apg8p homologs.

Apg7p is a unique E1 enzyme which is essential for both the Apg12p- and Apg8p-modification systems, and plays indispensable roles in yeast autophagy. A cDNA encoding murine Apg7p homolog (mApg7p) was isolated from a mouse brain cDNA library. The predicted amino acid sequence of the clone shows a significant homology to human Apg7p and yeast Apg7p.