Integrated Care Model by the Village Health Volunteers to Prevent and Slow down Progression of Chronic Kidney Disease in a Rural Community, Thailand.

INTRODUCTION: Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is a major health problem in Thailand and health behaviors are central to its risk and progression. Because of the shortage of healthcare personnel, village health volunteers (VHVs) have been collaborating in the primary health care system. However, the contribution of VHVs to CKD reduction has not been evaluated yet. This study aimed to evaluate the efficacy of the VHV-integrated model in preventing and slowing down CKD and its risk factors. METHODS: The population-based cohort study was conducted in a rural community of Thailand between 2017 and 2019. Baseline clinical and behavioral characteristics including CKD, diabetes, hypertension, and other high-risk factors of the participants were collected. The integrated care model was initiated by the multidisciplinary care team that facilitated, empowered, and trained VHVs targeting risk factors of CKD, health literacy, and health promotion. Then the participants were educated and trained for lifestyle modification and were monitored continuously for 18 months by VHVs. Changes in the CKD risk factors, and kidney functions before and after the application of integrated care model were compared. RESULTS: A total of 831 subjects participated in the study with an average age of 57.5 years, and 69.5% were female. Among them, 222 participants (26.7%) were diagnosed as having CKD, the vast majority (95%) of which were in the early stages (G1-G3 and A1-A2). CKD risk factors such as high salt intake, smoking, alcohol consumption, self-NSAID (non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs) use were significantly decreased after application of the care model. Also, hemoglobin A1c was significantly reduced in diabetic patients, and blood pressure was controlled better than before in the hypertensive patients. Most importantly, a decline of estimated glomerular filtration rate of the CKD group was improved and lower than the non-CKD group. CONCLUSION: The integrated care model through VHV significantly attenuated the risk factors associated with CKD in the general and high-risk population and effectively slowed down the progression of CKD.

From modulation of cellular plasticity to potentiation of therapeutic resistance: new and emerging roles of MYB transcription factors in human malignancies.

MYB transcription factors are encoded by a large family of highly conserved genes from plants to vertebrates. There are three members of the MYB gene family in human, namely, MYB, MYBL1, and MYBL2 that encode MYB/c-MYB, MYBL1/A-MYB, and MYBL2/B-MYB, respectively. MYB was the first member to be identified as a cellular homolog of the v-myb oncogene carried by the avian myeloblastosis virus (AMV) causing leukemia in chickens. Under the normal scenario, MYB is predominantly expressed in hematopoietic tissues, colonic crypts, and neural stem cells and plays a role in maintaining the undifferentiated state of the cells. Over the years, aberrant expression of MYB genes has been reported in several malignancies and recent years have witnessed tremendous progress in understanding of their roles in processes associated with cancer development. Here, we review various MYB alterations reported in cancer along with the roles of MYB family proteins in tumor cell plasticity, therapy resistance, and other hallmarks of cancer. We also discuss studies that provide mechanistic insights into the oncogenic functions of MYB transcription factors to identify potential therapeutic vulnerabilities.

Nanoflowers on Microporous Graphene Electrodes as a Highly Sensitive and Low-Cost As(III) Electrochemical Sensor for Water Quality Monitoring.

In this work, we report a low-cost and highly sensitive electrochemical sensor for detecting As(III) in water. The sensor uses a 3D microporous graphene electrode with nanoflowers, which enriches the reactive surface area and thus enhances its sensitivity. The detection range achieved was 1-50 ppb, meeting the US-EPA cutoff criteria of 10 ppb. The sensor works by trapping As(III) ions using the interlayer dipole between Ni and graphene, reducing As(III), and transferring electrons to the nanoflowers. The nanoflowers then exchange charges with the graphene layer, producing a measurable current. Interference by other ions, such as Pb(II) and Cd(II), was found to be negligible. The proposed method has potential for use as a portable field sensor for monitoring water quality to control hazardous As(III) in human life.

Mitochondrial Alterations in Prostate Cancer: Roles in Pathobiology and Racial Disparities.

Prostate cancer (PCa) affects millions of men worldwide and is a major cause of cancer-related mortality. Race-associated PCa health disparities are also common and are of both social and clinical concern. Most PCa is diagnosed early due to PSA-based screening, but it fails to discern between indolent and aggressive PCa. Androgen or androgen receptor-targeted therapies are standard care of treatment for locally advanced and metastatic disease, but therapy resistance is common. Mitochondria, the powerhouse of cells, are unique subcellular organelles that have their own genome. A large majority of mitochondrial proteins are, however, nuclear-encoded and imported after cytoplasmic translation. Mitochondrial alterations are common in cancer, including PCa, leading to their altered functions. Aberrant mitochondrial function affects nuclear gene expression in retrograde signaling and promotes tumor-supportive stromal remodeling. In this article, we discuss mitochondrial alterations that have been reported in PCa and review the literature related to their roles in PCa pathobiology, therapy resistance, and racial disparities. We also discuss the translational potential of mitochondrial alterations as prognostic biomarkers and as effective targets for PCa therapy.

Shaping Up the Tumor Microenvironment: Extracellular Vesicles as Important Intermediaries in Building a Tumor-Supportive Cellular Network.

A tumor is not just comprised of cancer cells but also a heterogeneous group of infiltrating and resident host cells, as well as their secreted factors that form the extracellular matrix [...].

Lung Ultrasound Estimates the Overhydration and Benefits Blood Pressure Control in Normal or Mild Symptomatic Hemodialysis Patients.

Introduction: Lung ultrasound (LUS) is used for dry weight guidance by assessment of pulmonary congestion in hemodialysis (HD) patients. The aim of this study was to estimate amounts of accumulated fluid by total LUS scores (TLUSS), which were scarcely reported in HD patients who were normal or had a mild functional abnormality. In addition, the correlations between the LUS score of each area and TLUSS were determined to suggest fewer specific areas valuable to shorten the examination time of LUS. Methods: This cohort study was conducted in adult HD patients who have New York Heart Association Classes I-II. LUS and multifrequency bioimpedance (BIA) were performed at baseline and the individual prescribed dry weight was set. Then each LUS was conducted at 28 areas of bilateral intercostal spaces and calculated as TLUSS weekly for eight weeks in which dry weight was adjusted. The second BIA was also measured at week eight. The difference of pre-HD weight and target weight (weight gain; WG) represented the amount of fluid accumulation. Results: Twenty patients with a mean age of 62.2±14.0 years were enrolled. One hundred and sixty-six LUS were performed in which forty episodes of them were simultaneously measured with BIA. Optimum dry weight adjusted by TLUSS which benefited in mean reductions of blood pressure, and cardiothoracic ratios. WG amounts were significantly correlated with TLUSS (r=0.38), and with extracellular fluid (r=0.35) and overhydration fluid (r=0.39) assessed by BIA. Estimations of mean fluid overload were 2.18 (TLUSS ≤15), 2.72 (TLUSS 16-24), 3.17 (TLUSS 25-33), 3.65 (TLUSS 34-38) and 5.03 (TLUSS ≥39) in liters. The cut-off points of sum scores of 12 specific lung areas represented the none-mild were <8, moderate at 8-16, and severe pulmonary congestions were >16. Conclusion: TLUSS estimated accumulated fluid useful for volume and blood pressure controls. Performance of LUS in 12 specific lung areas may reduce spending time and support routine uses of LUS in clinical practice.

Reply to Chao et al. Comment on "Nahok et al. Monosodium Glutamate Induces Changes in Hepatic and Renal Metabolic Profiles and Gut Microbiome of Wistar Rats. Nutrients 2021, 13, 1865".

We sincerely appreciate the thorough review and insights of Dr. Huichia Chao and colleagues [...].

High prevalence of chronic kidney disease and its related risk factors in rural areas of Northeast Thailand.

In Thailand, chronic kidney disease (CKD) screening was reported in 2009 with an overall prevalence of 17.5% and the highest at 22.2% in the northeastern region. This study aimed to find out CKD prevalence of the Kidney Disease Improving Global Outcomes criteria and their related risk factors in the rural community. A population-based study was conducted in the rural sub-districts of northeastern Thailand. Data of socio-demographic status, lifestyle, underlying diseases, blood pressure, and body mass index were recorded. Blood and urine analysis was conducted along with ultrasonography of kidneys. Specimen collection and analyses were repeated after 3 months, and the factors associated with CKD were studied by logistic regression analysis. A total of 2205 participants with a mean age of 57.8 ± 11.7 years and female predominance (66.7%) completed the study. The prevalence of CKD was 26.8%, i.e., stages 1 (7.3%); stage 2 (9.0%); stage 3a (6.0%); stage 3b (2.8%); stage 4 (1.4%); and stage 5 (0.3%). Hypertension, diabetes mellitus, and renal stones were the major underlying diseases. Only 3.5% of the participants were aware of having CKD. An increase in age, male, unemployment, current smoking, diabetes, hypertension, underweight, anemia, hyperuricemia, and leukocytosis were significantly associated factors with the disease. The study revealed that CKD has developed as a significant public health problem in rural northeastern Thailand and one out of every four people has CKD. Therefore, early interventions are essential for the proper management and prevention of CKD.

Monosodium glutamate consumption reduces the renal excretion of trimethylamine N-oxide and the abundance of Akkermansia muciniphila in the gut.

We previously demonstrated that monosodium glutamate (MSG) consumption increases trimethylamine (TMA) level in the renal tissue as well as dimethylamine and methylamine levels in urine of rats, suggesting the effects of MSG on humans. To better define the findings, we investigated whether MSG consumption alters serum trimethylamine N-oxide (TMAO) level, and as a consequence, induces kidney injury in the rat model. Adult male Wistar rats (n = 40) were randomized to be fed with a standard diet (control group) or a standard diet with 0.5, 1.5 or 3.0 g% MSG corresponding to 7, 21, or 42 g/day in 60 kg man, respectively in drinking water (MSG-treated groups), or a standard diet with 3.0 g% MSG in drinking water which was withdrawn after 4 weeks (MSG-withdrawal group). Blood and urine samples were collected to analyze the TMAO levels using 1H NMR and markers of kidney injury. Fecal samples were also collected for gut microbiota analysis. We found serum TMAO levels increased and urinary TMAO excretion decreased during MSG consumption, in parallel with the increase of the neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin (NGAL) excretion which subsided with the withdrawal of MSG. The fecal 16 S rRNA analysis during MSG consumption showed gut microbiota changes with a consistent suppression of Akkermansia muciniphila, a mucin producing bacteria, but not of TMA-producing bacteria. In conclusions, our findings suggested that prolonged high dose MSG consumption may cause TMAO accumulation in the blood via reduction of renal excretion associated with acute kidney injury. The mechanisms by which MSG reduced TMAO excretion require further investigation.

Non-invasively accuracy enhanced blood glucose sensor using shallow dense neural networks with NIR monitoring and medical features.

Non-invasive and accurate method for continuous blood glucose monitoring, the self-testing of blood glucose is in quest for better diagnosis, control and the management of diabetes mellitus (DM). Therefore, this study reports a multiple photonic band near-infrared (mbNIR) sensor augmented with personalized medical features (PMF) in Shallow Dense Neural Networks (SDNN) for the precise, inexpensive and pain free blood glucose determination. Datasets collected from 401 blood samples were randomized and trained with ten-fold validation. Additionally, a cohort of 234 individuals not included in the model training set were investigated to evaluate the performance of the model. The model achieved the accuracy of 97.8% along with 96.0% precision, 94.8% sensitivity and 98.7% specificity for DM classification based on a diagnosis threshold of 126 mg/dL for diabetes in fasting blood glucose. For non-invasive real-time blood glucose monitoring, the model exhibited ± 15% error with 95% confidence interval and the detection limit of 60-400 mg/dL, as validated with the standard hexokinase enzymatic method for glucose estimation. In conclusion, this proposed mbNIR based SDNN model with PMF is highly accurate and computationally cheaper compared to similar previous works using complex neural network. Some groups proposed using complicated mixed types of sensors to improve noninvasive glucose prediction accuracy; however, the accuracy gain over the complexity and costs of the systems harvested is still in questioned (Geng et al. in Sci Rep 7:12650, 2017). None of previous works report on accuracy enhancement of NIR/NN using PMF. Therefore, the proposed SDNN over PMF/mbNIR is an extremely promising candidate for the non-invasive real-time blood glucose monitoring with less complexity and pain-free.

Monosodium Glutamate Induces Changes in Hepatic and Renal Metabolic Profiles and Gut Microbiome of Wistar Rats.

The short- and long-term consumption of monosodium glutamate (MSG) increases urinary pH but the effects on the metabolic pathways in the liver, kidney and the gut microbiota remain unknown. To address this issue, we investigated adult male Wistar rats allocated to receive drinking water with or without 1 g% MSG for 2 weeks (n = 10, each). We performed a Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) spectroscopy-based metabolomic study of the jejunum, liver, and kidneys, while faecal samples were collected for bacterial DNA extraction to investigate the gut microbiota using 16S rRNA gene sequencing. We observed significant changes in the liver of MSG-treated rats compared to controls in the levels of glucose, pyridoxine, leucine, isoleucine, valine, alanine, kynurenate, and nicotinamide. Among kidney metabolites, the level of trimethylamine (TMA) was increased, and pyridoxine was decreased after MSG-treatment. Sequencing of the 16S rRNA gene revealed that MSG-treated rats had increased Firmicutes, the gut bacteria associated with TMA metabolism, along with decreased Bifidobacterium species. Our data support the impact of MSG consumption on liver and kidney metabolism. Based on the gut microbiome changes, we speculate that TMA and its metabolites such as trimethylamine-N-oxide (TMAO) may be mediators of the effects of MSG on the kidney health.

CKDNET, a quality improvement project for prevention and reduction of chronic kidney disease in the Northeast Thailand.

BACKGROUND: The incidence of chronic kidney disease (CKD) is high in the Northeast Thailand compared to other parts of the country. Therefore, a broad program applying all levels of care is inevitable. This paper describes the results of the first year trial of the Chronic Kidney Disease Prevention in the Northeast Thailand (CKDNET), a quality improvement project collaboratively established to curb CKD. METHODS: We have covered general population, high risk persons and all stages of CKD patients with expansive strategies such as early screening, effective CKD registry, prevention and CKD comprehensive care models including cost effectiveness analysis. RESULTS: The preliminary results from CKD screening in general population of two rural sub-districts show that 26.8% of the screened population has CKD and 28.9% of CKD patients are of unknown etiology. We have established the CKD registry that has enlisted a total of 10.4 million individuals till date, of which 0.13 million are confirmed to have CKD. Pamphlets, posters, brochures and other media of 94 different types in the total number of 478,450 has been distributed for CKD education and awareness at the community level. A CKD guideline that suits for local situation has been formulated to deal the problem effectively and improve care. Moreover, our multidisciplinary intervention and self-management supports were effective in improving glomerular filtration rate (49.57 versus 46.23 ml/min/1.73 m2; p < 0.05), blood pressure (129.6/76.1 versus 135.8/83.6 mmHg) and quality of life of CKD patients included in the program compared to those of the patients under conventional care. The cost effectiveness analysis revealed that lifetime cost for the comprehensive health services under the CKDNET program was 486,898 Baht compared to that of the usual care of 479,386 Baht, resulting in an incremental-cost effectiveness ratio of 18,702 Baht per quality-adjusted life years gained. CONCLUSION: CKDNET, a quality improvement project of the holistic approach is currently applying to the population in the Northeast Thailand which will facilitate curtailing of CKD burden in the region.

Telomerase Responsive Delivery of Doxorubicin from Mesoporous Silica Nanoparticles in Multiple Malignancies: Therapeutic Efficacies against Experimental Aggressive Murine Lymphoma.

Mammalian telomerase maintains the length and integrity of telomeres by adding the telomeric repeats to the chromosome end. This work describes the telomerase responsive delivery of doxorubicin against telomerase positive human and murine cancer cells. Wrapping of doxorubicin loaded mesoporous silica nanoparticles with specific oligonucleotide sequence, containing telomeric repeat complementary sequence and a telomerase substrate primer sequence, resulted in slow and sustained release of doxorubicin, contiguous to the tumor cells. The DNA wrapped nanoprobe significantly inhibits the proliferation and enhanced the cytotoxicity in telomerase positive human and mouse tumor cells, and its function is impeded following exposure to specific telomerase inhibitor, AZT. Entrapping of doxorubicin by telomerase specific oligo manifests enhanced apoptosis and significantly higher uptake of the drug in the tumor cells. Treatment of telomerase positive Dalton's lymphoma bearing mice with a novel and newly designed oligo wrapped nanoprobe, specific for mouse telomerase, significantly enhanced the survival and improved the histopathological parameters. In addition, the treatment also induced significant reduction in the number of tumor foci and restored the normal architecture of the vascularized organs, besides preventing metastasis.

Translationally controlled tumor protein (TCTP) is required for TGF-ß1 induced epithelial to mesenchymal transition and influences cytoskeletal reorganization.

Epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) is a programed course of developmental changes resulting in the acquisition of invasiveness and mobility in cells. In cancer, this course is used by epithelial cells to attain movability. Translationally controlled tumor protein (TCTP) has been extensively characterized following the observation on tumor reversion ensuing its depletion. However, the role of TCTP in cancer progression is still elusive. Here, we demonstrate for the first time that TCTP is a target of transforming growth factor-ß1 (TGF-ß1), a key regulator of EMT in A549 cells. We here present changes in expression patterns of intermediate filament markers (vimentin and cytokeratin 18a) of EMT following TCTP knockdown or over expression. The TCTP over-expression in cancer cells is associated with mesenchymal characters, while downregulation promotes the epithelial markers in the cells. Interaction of TCTP with ß-catenin seems to stabilize ß-catenin, preparative to its nuclear localization highlighting a role for ß-catenin signaling in EMT. Moreover, the induction of urokinase plasminogen activator (uPA) following ectopic expression of TCTP leads to destabilization of ECM. The cells knocked down for TCTP show diminished invasiveness and migration under TGF-ß1 treatment. The present results for the first time demonstrate that TGF-ß1 dependent TCTP expression is required for EMT in cells.

Proteomic identification of proteins differentially expressed following overexpression of hTERT (human telomerase reverse transcriptase) in cancer cells.

Reverse transcriptase activity of telomerase adds telomeric repeat sequences at extreme ends of the newly replicated chromosome in actively dividing cells. Telomerase expression is not detected in terminally differentiated cells but is noticeable in 90% of the cancer cells. hTERT (human telomerase reverse transcriptase) expression seems to promote invasiveness of cancer cells. We here present proteomic profiles of cells overexpressing or knocked down for hTERT. This study also attempts to find out the potential interacting partners of hTERT in cancer cell lines. Two-dimensional gel electrophoresis (2-DE) of two different cell lines U2OS (a naturally hTERT negative cell line) and HeLa revealed differential expression of proteins in hTERT over-expressing cells. In U2OS cell line 28 spots were picked among which 23 spots represented upregulated and 5 represented down regulated proteins. In HeLa cells 21 were upregulated and 2 were down regulated out of 23 selected spots under otherwise identical experimental conditions. Some heat shock proteins viz. Hsp60 and Hsp70 and GAPDH, which is a housekeeping gene, were found similarly upregulated in both the cell lines. The upregulation of these proteins were further confirmed at RNA and protein level by real-time PCR and western blotting respectively.

Monosodium glutamate-induced oxidative kidney damage and possible mechanisms: a mini-review.

Animal studies suggest that chronic monosodium glutamate (MSG) intake induces kidney damage by oxidative stress. However, the underlying mechanisms are still unclear, despite the growing evidence and consensus that α-ketoglutarate dehydrogenase, glutamate receptors and cystine-glutamate antiporter play an important role in up-regulation of oxidative stress in MSG-induced renal toxicity. This review summaries evidence from studies into MSG-induced renal oxidative damage, possible mechanisms and their importance from a toxicological viewpoint.

Monosodium Glutamate Dietary Consumption Decreases Pancreatic ß-Cell Mass in Adult Wistar Rats.

BACKGROUND: The amount of dietary monosodium glutamate (MSG) is increasing worldwide, in parallel with the epidemics of metabolic syndrome. Parenteral administration of MSG to rodents induces obesity, hyperglycemia, hyperlipidemia, insulin resistance, and type 2 diabetes. However, the impact of dietary MSG is still being debated. We investigated the morphological and functional effects of prolonged MSG consumption on rat glucose metabolism and on pancreatic islet histology. METHODS: Eighty adult male Wistar rats were randomly subdivided into 4 groups, and test rats in each group were supplemented with MSG for a different duration (1, 3, 6, or 9 months, n=20 for each group). All rats were fed ad libitum with a standard rat chow and water. Ten test rats in each group were provided MSG 2 mg/g body weight/day in drinking water and the 10 remaining rats in each group served as non-MSG treated controls. Oral glucose tolerance tests (OGTT) were performed and serum insulin measured at 9 months. Animals were sacrificed at 1, 3, 6, or 9 months to examine the histopathology of pancreatic islets. RESULTS: MSG-treated rats had significantly lower pancreatic ß-cell mass at 1, 6 and 9 months of study. Islet hemorrhages increased with age in all groups and fibrosis was significantly more frequent in MSG-treated rats at 1 and 3 months. Serum insulin levels and glucose tolerance in MSG-treated and untreated rats were similar at all time points we investigated. CONCLUSION: Daily MSG dietary consumption was associated with reduced pancreatic ß-cell mass and enhanced hemorrhages and fibrosis, but did not affect glucose homeostasis. We speculate that high dietary MSG intake may exert a negative effect on the pancreas and such effect might become functionally significant in the presence or susceptibility to diabetes or NaCl; future experiments will take these crucial cofactors into account.

Global expression profile of telomerase-associated genes in HeLa cells.

Telomerase is a specialized nucleoprotein enzyme complex that maintains the telomere length. The telomerase reverse transcriptase (TERT) is the catalytically active component of the telomerase complex. In humans, the protein component (hTERT) and RNA component (hTR) are found to differentially express in cancer cells. In contrast to differentiated cells, most of the cancer cells overexpress hTERT, which is needed to maintain the proliferative potential of cells. The overexpression of telomerase is not proportionate to telomere length in cancer cells, suggesting that the immortalizing phenotype can be mediated through other factors in addition to telomere length. To investigate the role of hTERT in immortalizing process, loss of gene function studies were carried out. Short interfering RNA (siRNA) and short hairpin RNA (shRNA) against hTERT showed the reduction of hTERT transcript, reduction of telomerase activity and alteration of gene expression in HeLa cells. The molecular basis of proliferative capacity of hTERT was investigated by gene expression microarray. Analysis of microarray data for HeLa cells following siRNA and shRNA mediated knockdown of hTERT showed that 80 genes were upregulated and 73 genes downregulated. Out of these, 37 genes are known to be involved in cancer. Further analyses of previously known genes involved in cancer like KLF4, FGF2, IRF-9 and PLAU by Real Time PCR showed their upregulation. We are documenting for the first time the effect of knocking down hTERT on expression of KLF4 and FGF2. Interestingly, it has been earlier reported that KLF4 and FGF2 up-regulate the expression of hTERT in cancer cells. This suggests that hTERT may be subject to its own auto-regulatory effects.

Expression of targeted ribozyme against telomerase RNA causes altered expression of several other genes in tumor cells.

Telomeres are tandem repeat sequences present at chromosome end that are synthesized by RNA-protein enzyme called telomerase. The RNA component (TR) serves as template for telomerase reverse transcriptase (TERT) for generating telomere repeats. TERT is overexpressed in actively dividing cells including cancerous cells, absent in differentiated somatic cells whereas human telomerase RNA (hTR) is present in normal as well as in cancer cells. Telomerase overexpression in cancer cells ensures telomere length maintenance that actually provides proliferative advantage to cells. Stable expression of ribozyme against hTR in HeLa cells results in reduction of hTR levels, telomerase activity, and telomere length which is accompanied by altered cell morphology and expression of several specific cellular genes. The altered genes deduced from differentially display PCR and 2D gel electrophoresis upon hTR knockdown have function in ribosome biogenesis, chromatin modulation, cell cycle control, and p63-dependant pathways. Our observations shows hTR participates in diverse cellular functions other than telomere maintenance, validates as a possible drug targets in p53- and pRB-negative status, and indicated possible cross-talks between telomerase and other cellular pathways.

Proteomic analysis of kidney in rats chronically exposed to monosodium glutamate.

BACKGROUND: Chronic monosodium glutamate (MSG) intake causes kidney dysfunction and renal oxidative stress in the animal model. To gain insight into the renal changes induced by MSG, proteomic analysis of the kidneys was performed. METHODS: Six week old male Wistar rats were given drinking water with or without MSG (2 mg/g body weight, n = 10 per group) for 9 months. Kidneys were removed, frozen, and stored at -75°C. After protein extraction, 2-D gel electrophoresis was performed and renal proteome profiles were examined with Colloidal Coomassie Brilliant Blue staining. Statistically significant protein spots (ANOVA, p<0.05) with 1.2-fold difference were excised and analyzed by LC-MS. Proteomic data were confirmed by immunohistochemistry and Western blot analyses. RESULTS: The differential image analysis showed 157 changed spots, of which 71 spots were higher and 86 spots were lower in the MSG-treated group compared with those in the control group. Eight statistically significant and differentially expressed proteins were identified: glutathione S-transferase class-pi, heat shock cognate 71 kDa, phosphoserine phosphatase, phosphoglycerate kinase, cytosolic glycerol-3-phosphate dehydrogenase, 2-amino-3-carboxymuconate-6-semialdehyde decarboxylase, α-ketoglutarate dehydrogenase and succinyl-CoA ligase. CONCLUSION: The identified proteins are mainly related to oxidative stress and metabolism. They provide a valuable clue to explore the mechanism of renal handling and toxicity on chronic MSG intake.