Decreased TIM-3 mRNA expression in peripheral blood mononuclear cells from nephropathy patients.

Increasing evidence shows that TIM-1 and TIM-3 in-fluence chronic autoimmune diseases, and their expression levels in immune cells from nephritic patients are still unknown. Real-time transcription-polymerase chain reaction analysis was used to deter-mine expression levels of TIM-1 and TIM-3 mRNA in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) from 36 patients with minimal change glo-merulopathy (MCG), 65 patients with lupus nephritis (LN), 78 patients with IgA nephropathy (IgAN), 55 patients with membranous nephropa-thy (MN), 22 patients with crescentic glomerulonephritis (CGN), 26 patients with anaphylactoid purpura nephritis (APN), and 63 healthy controls. TIM-3 mRNA expression significantly decreased in PBMCs from nephritic patients (LN, P < 0.0001; MCG, P < 0.0001; MN, P = 0.0031; CGN, P = 0.0464; IgAN, P = 0.0002; APN, P = 0.0392) com-pared with healthy controls. In contrast, there was no significant differ-ence in TIM-1 mRNA expression between the patients and the healthy controls. Our results suggest that insufficient expression of TIM-3 mRNA may be involved in the pathogenesis of nephropathy.

Biomarkers of renal function, which and when?

PURPOSE OF THE REVIEW: Acute kidney injury (AKI) and chronic kidney disease (CKD) are conditions that substantially increase morbidity and mortality. Although novel biomarkers are being used in practice, the diagnosis of AKI and CKD is still made with surrogate markers of GFR, such as serum creatinine (SCr), urine output and creatinine based estimating equations. SCr is limited as a marker of kidney dysfunction in both settings and may be inaccurate in several situations, such as in patients with low muscle mass or with fluid overload. New biomarkers have the potential to identify earlier patients with AKI and CKD and in the future potentially intervene to modify outcomes. RECENT FINDINGS: In particular KIM-1 and NGAL are considered excellent biomarkers in urine and plasma for the early prediction of AKI; however cycle arrest biomarkers have emerged as novel markers for risk stratification of AKI. Urine TIMP-2 and IGFBP7 performed better than any other biomarkers reported to date for predicting the development of moderate or severe AKI. Biomarker combinations are required to increase diagnostic accuracy in an acute setting. NGAL, cystatin C, and FGF-23 are promising and accurate biomarkers for CKD detection. Equations combining cystatin C and SCr perform better than the equations using either cystatin C or SCr alone, especially in situations where CKD needs to be confirmed. Combining creatinine, cystatin C and urine albumin to creatinine ratio improves risk stratification for kidney disease progression and mortality. SUMMARY: Recent advances in molecular biology have resulted in promising biomarkers for AKI and CKD diagnoses; however more research is necessary to implement them successfully into clinical practice in order to facilitate early diagnosis, guide interventions and monitor disease progression. The following review describes the most important biomarkers studied in kidney disease and will discuss the use and the value of these biomarkers in different clinical settings.

[Partial characterization of the Pixuna virus receptor present on erythrocytes of one-day-old chicks]. / Caracterización parcial de un receptor para el virus Pixuna presente en eritrocitos de pollos de un día de edad.

A study was undertaken to evaluate the physical, chemical and immunological aspects of a receptor for Pixuna virus present on 1-day-old chicken erythrocytes. The proteases trypsin and chymotrypsin were able to expose more binding sites on the erythrocytes, increasing the hemagglutinating titer (p < 0.001). Membrane components from red blood cell membranes (ROG) were extracted with the nonionic detergent octyl glucoside. ROG could bind to Pixuna virus and prevent hemagglutination. When ROG was filtered through a 0.22 mu filter, the activity was lost, but the filtrate inhibited plaque formation in Vero cells. The membrane components did not lose activity when kept at temperatures from -5 degrees C to -134 degrees C for months. After heating at 37 degrees C for 1 h and/or at 75 degrees C for 15 min the activity remained constant. A rabbit policlonal antiserum against the membranes gave precipitin lines in ID and in CIEF that disappeared after the enzymatic treatment, but the proteases did not affect the activity to produce hemagglutination-inhibition. Similar results were obtained when a mouse antiserum against ROG was used. The present study showed that the receptor for Pixuna virus present on 1-day-old chicken erythrocytes is not proteic in nature. The membrane components, ROG, with the property of inhibiting hemagglutination, contain proteins but they were not essential for the activity. It appears that the active compound was not able to produce antibodies in these experimental conditions. ROG had two different kinds of receptors: one that was able to produce hemagglutination-inhibition and another one with the property to inhibit plaque formation in Vero cells. Apparently, lipids would be involved in the hemagglutination-inhibition activity.