Wnt4 is a novel biomarker for the early detection of kidney tubular injury after ischemia/reperfusion injury.

Earlier intervention after acute kidney injury would promote better outcomes. Our previous study found that Wnt proteins are promptly upregulated after ischemic kidney injury. Thus, we assessed whether Wnt4 could be an early and sensitive biomarker of tubular injury. We subjected mice to bilateral ischemia/reperfusion injury (IRI). Kidney and urinary Wnt4 expression showed an early increase at 3 hours and increased further at 24 hours post-IRI and was closely correlated with histopathological alterations. Serum creatinine slightly increased at 6 hours, indicating that it was less sensitive than Wnt4 expression. These data were further confirmed by clinical study. Both kidney and urinary Wnt4 expression were significantly increased in patients diagnosed with biopsy-proven minimal change disease (MCD) with tubular injury, all of whom nevertheless had normal estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) and serum creatinine. The increased Wnt4 expression also strongly correlated with histopathological alterations in these MCD patients. In conclusion, this is the first demonstration that increases in both kidney and urinary Wnt4 expression can be detected more sensitively and earlier than serum creatinine after kidney injury. In particular, urinary Wnt4 could be a potential noninvasive biomarker for the early detection of tubular injury.

Prevalence of Trichomonas spp. in domestic pigeons in Shandong Province, China, and genotyping by restriction fragment length polymorphism.

Oropharyngeal swabs (n = 609) were collected randomly from 80,000 domestic pigeons (Columba livia domestica) on five pigeon farms and at one pigeon slaughterhouse in Shandong Province, China, from September 2012 to July 2013. Trichomonas spp. were detected in 206/609 (33.8%) samples. The prevalence was 14.9-31.1%, depending on different levels of sanitation and management, and was 4.8% in nestling pigeons, 13.6% in breeding pigeons and 35.2% in adolescent pigeons. Trichomonas gallinae genotypes A and B, and Trichomonas tenax-like isolates were identified by PCR-restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) analysis and sequencing of the 5.8S rDNA-internal transcribed spacer (ITS) regions. RFLP analysis with the restriction enzyme BsiEI generated different RFLP band patterns between T. gallinae and T.tenax-like isolates. When BsiEI RFLP analysis was combined with HaeIII RFLP analysis, all infection types of T. gallinae and T.tenax-like isolates could be identified.

Co-expression of EtMic2 protein and chicken interleukin-18 for DNA vaccine against chicken coccidiosis.

In the present study, a naked EtMIC2 DNA vaccine, a ChIL-18 expression vector and a EtMIC2 and ChIL-18 co-expression DNA vaccine were constructed and their protective efficacies against homologous challenge were compared and evaluated by examining the body weight gain, oocyst shedding, cecal lesion, ACI as well as specific anti-EtMic2 antibody level, the proliferation ability and percentages of CD4+ and CD8+ of splenocytes. The results showed the naked EtMIC2 DNA vaccine could increase the weight gain and decrease the oocyst shedding, but could not alleviate the cecal lesion of immunized chickens compared to unimmunized chickens. Chickens immunized with the co-expression vector pVAX1-MIC2-IL-18 exhibited much improved immune protection against challenge compared to chickens immunized with naked EtMIC2 DNA vaccine, or with naked EtMIC2 DNA vaccine and ChIL-18 expression vector applied separately. These results suggest that the co-expression of ChIL-18 with EtMic2 together could significantly improve the immune protection of the EtMic2 protein.