Inflammation, vitamin D and dendritic cell precursors in chronic kidney disease.

Decreased blood dendritic cell precursors (DCP) count is linked with atherosclerotic disease, while reduction of circulating DCP is also seen in patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD). As poor vitamin D status could be linked to a compromised innate immune response, we hypothesized that vitamin D status might be involved in the decrease in circulating DCP in CKD. Moreover, the potential role of inflammation was considered. Circulating myeloid (mDCP), plasmacytoid (pDCP) and total DCP (tDCP) were analysed using flow cytometry in 287 patients with CKD stage 3. Serum 25(OH)D and 1,25(OH)2D levels were measured using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISA), interleukin (IL)-6, IL-10 and tumour necrosis factor (TNF)-α using cytometric bead array, C-reactive protein (CRP) using a high-sensitivity (hs) ELISA. Contrary to our hypothesis, there was no association between vitamin D levels and DCP, although their number was decreased significantly in CKD (P < 0·001). Instead, mDCP (r = -0·211) and tDCP (r = -0·188,) were associated slightly negatively with hsCRP but positively with the estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR, r = 0·314 for tDCP). According to multivariate linear regression, only higher hsCRP concentration and the presence of diabetes mellitus had a significant negative influence on DCP count (P < 0·03, respectively) but not vitamin D, age and eGFR. A significant impact of vitamin D on the reduction of circulating DCP in CKD 3 patients can be neglected. Instead, inflammation as a common phenomenon in CKD and diabetes mellitus had the main influence on the decrease in DCP. Thus, a potential role for DCP as a sensitive marker of inflammation and cardiovascular risk should be elucidated in future studies.

Common oral conditions.

Although some oral lesions, such as torus palatinus, are normal variants, and others, such as benign migratory glossitis, are self-limited, several common oral conditions require prompt diagnosis and treatment to reduce the potential for serious complications. Treatment of dental and periodontal abscesses may include incision and drainage, antibiotic therapy, pain control and dental extraction. Treatment of sialolithiasis (blockage of the salivary gland ducts) may require application of moist heat, antibiotics and surgical removal of impacted stones. Hyperkeratosis, a white patch on the oral mucosa that does not rub off or bleed (as does the white patch of candidiasis) commonly occurs in persons who use smokeless tobacco products. The lesion may require biopsy if it still persists two to four weeks after discontinuation of the tobacco product. Squamous cell carcinoma, which accounts for 95 percent of all oral cancers and is most commonly associated with alcohol and tobacco use, is usually asymptomatic until the late stage of the disease. Suspicious lesions should be biopasied to confirm the diagnosis.

Avian cellular homolog of the qin oncogene.

We have isolated chicken cDNA clones of the c-qin gene, the cellular counterpart of the v-qin (Chinese for "avian") oncogene of avian sarcoma virus 31. There are several differences between the cellular and the viral qin sequences: (i) two nonconservative amino acid substitutions in the Qin coding region; (ii) a truncation in the carboxyl terminus of the viral protein due to a premature stop codon; (iii) a partial Gag sequence fused to the amino terminus of viral Qin; and (iv) eight cell-coded amino acids which link the cellular Qin coding domain to the viral Gag domain. We have also characterized the expression pattern of c-qin in chicken embryos by in situ hybridization and by Northern blot analysis. c-qin is abundantly expressed in the developing brain, and this expression is restricted to the telencephalon of early embryos.