A history of health and medical research in Australia.

Health and medical research has played an important role in improving the life of Australians since before the 20th century, with many Australian researchers contributing to important advances both locally and internationally. The establishment of the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) to support research and to work to achieve the benefits of research for the community was significant. The NHMRC has also provided guidance in research and health ethics.

High-salt diet reveals the hypertensive and renal effects of reduced nephron endowment.

The extent to which a reduced nephron endowment contributes to hypertension and renal disease is confounded in models created by intrauterine insults that also demonstrate other phenotypes. Furthermore, recent data suggest that a reduced nephron endowment provides the "first hit" and simply increases the susceptibility to injurious stimuli. Thus we examined nephron number, glomerular volume, conscious mean arterial pressure (MAP), and renal function in a genetic model of reduced nephron endowment before and after a high-salt (5%) diet.

Glomerular surface area is normalized in mice born with a nephron deficit: no role for AT1 receptors.

We examined whether deficits in glomerular capillary surface area associated with a congenital nephron deficit could be corrected by glomerular hypertrophy. Using unbiased stereological techniques, we examined the time course and mode of glomerular hypertrophy in mice lacking one allele for glial cell line-derived neurotrophic factor (GDNF). These GDNF heterozygous (Het) mice are born with approximately 30% less nephrons than wild-type (WT) littermates.

Measurement of renal tissue oxygen tension: systematic differences between fluorescence optode and microelectrode recordings in anaesthetized rabbits.

Background/aims: The validity of fluorescence optodes for measurement of renal cortical tissue oxygen tension was tested by comparison with Clark electrodes.

Methods: We varied renal blood flow and inspired O2 content in anaesthetized rabbits while simultaneously measuring cortical tissue oxygen tension.

Results: Cortical oxygen tension varied with inspired O2 content.

Simultaneous measurement of pO2 and perfusion in the rabbit kidney in vivo.

Recently, a combined probe has been developed capable of simultaneous measurement of local tissue pO2 (fluorescence oximetry) and microvascular perfusion (laser Doppler flux) within the same local region. The aim of the current study was to test the utility of these combined probes to measure pO2 and perfusion in the kidney. Studies were performed in anesthetized, artificially ventilated rabbits (n=7).

Evidence that renal arterial-venous oxygen shunting contributes to dynamic regulation of renal oxygenation.

Renal blood flow (RBF) can be reduced in rats and rabbits by up to 40% without significant changes in renal tissue Po(2). We determined whether this occurs because renal oxygen consumption changes with RBF or due to some other mechanism. The relationships between RBF and renal cortical and medullary tissue P(O(2)) and renal oxygen metabolism were determined in the denervated kidneys of anesthetized rabbits under hypoxic, normoxic, and hyperoxic conditions.

Total peripheral resistance responsiveness during the development of secondary renal hypertension in dogs.

Objective: To determine whether the responses of total peripheral resistance and arterial pressure to vasoconstrictor agents are amplified as renovascular hypertension develops in dogs.

Methods: After baseline measurements, the effects of renal artery stenosis (1K, 1C hypertension) were studied in groups of untreated and enalapril-treated dogs early (1-3 weeks) and later (4-6 weeks) as the hypertension developed. Both resting and open-loop haemodynamic measurements were made and the effects of acute intravenous infusions of vasopressin (0.

Working to build a healthy Australia: A new era for the NHMRC.

The National Health and Medical Research Council Act 1992 (Cwlth) was amended in 2006 to streamline governance arrangements and help the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) to become a more responsive organisation and more effective at both acquisition and implementation of new knowledge. As part of the NHMRC's plans for the future, we will implement the recommendations of the Investment Review of Health and Medical Research on policy- and practice-focused research, commercialisation, and recruitment of health and research professionals to the NHMRC. The NHMRC is also improving its process for selecting and supporting the best research across biomedical, clinical, public health and health services disciplines; and will develop, trial and introduce new forms of communicating evidence-based information.

Endogenous endothelins and the response to electrical renal nerve stimulation in anaesthetized rabbits.

The influence of endogenous endothelins on the neural control of renal function is poorly understood. We therefore studied the effects of endothelin blockade (combined ET(A) and ET(B) receptor antagonism using TAK-044) on the acute and prolonged effects of renal nerve stimulation in rabbits, measuring renal blood flow, glomerular filtration rate (GFR), urine flow and sodium excretion. Brief (3 min) stimulation over 0.

Renal preglomerular arterial-venous O2 shunting is a structural anti-oxidant defence mechanism of the renal cortex.

1. High blood flow to the kidney facilitates a high glomerular filtration rate, but total renal O2 delivery greatly exceeds renal metabolic requirements. However, tissue Po2 in much of the renal cortex is lower than may be expected, being similar to that of other organs in which perfusion is closely matched to metabolic demand.

Strengthening Australia's framework for research oversight.

All stakeholders should contribute to enhancing Australia's guidelines for ethical research.

Australian researchers' views on current research funding.

We need a vision to attract funding increases, and it must come from the research community.

Renal structural and functional repair in a mouse model of reversal of ureteral obstruction.

The end point of immune and nonimmune renal injury typically involves glomerular and tubulointerstitial fibrosis. Although numerous studies have focused on the events that lead to renal fibrosis, less is known about the mechanisms that promote cellular repair and tissue remodeling. Described is a model of renal injury and repair after the reversal of unilateral ureteral obstruction (UUO) in male C57bl/6J mice.