Abstract When two disks move toward each other, overlap, and then apart, the visual system can resolve ambiguity either as streaming past other or bouncing off other. Presenting a brief beep at moment of overlap has been observed to increase proportion reported impressions (i.e., auditory-induced ) well reduce perceived between (leaving larger uncovered crescent; illusory crescents ). Previous ...

In the best understood models of eukaryotic directional sensing, chemotactic cells maintain a uniform distribution of surface receptors even when responding to chemical gradients. The yeast pheromone receptor is also uniformly distributed on the plasma membrane of vegetative cells, but pheromone induces its polarization into "crescents" that cap the future mating projection. Here, we find that ...

OBJECTIVES Pauci-immune glomerulonephritis is the commonest cause of rapidly progressive glomerulonephritis (RPGN) which is associated with increased mortality and morbidity. More than 90% of these patients have serological presence of either antineutrophil cytoplasmic antibodies (ANCA), of cytoplamic (C) or perinuclear (P) type. "Immunofluoresence studies" exhibiting minimal or no fluorescence...

OBJECTIVE Intra-renal T cells and macrophages play a key pathogenic role in the development and progression of glomerular crescents. We aimed to establish (S)-armepavine [(S)-ARM], a major bioactive compound of a Chinese medicinal plant, Nelumbo nucifera, as a potential therapeutic agent in the treatment of autoimmune crescentic glomerulonephritis (ACGN). METHODS A mouse ACGN model associated...

The 2009 Oxford Classification of immunoglobulin A (IgA) nephropathy (IgAN) identifies four histological features as predictors of renal prognosis: mesangial hypercellularity (M), endocapillary hypercellularity (E), segmental glomerulosclerosis (S), and tubular atrophy/interstitial fibrosis (T). However, the clinical and prognostic significance of crescent formation still remains controversial....

Membranous nephropathy (MN) may be a primary disease or secondary to autoimmune conditions such as systemic lupus erythematosus, infection (for example, with hepatitis B or C virus), cancer or drugs. In primary MN, crescents are rarely observed. Therefore, the presence of crescents suggests another underlying disease, for example lupus nephritis, anti-glomerular basement membrane disease or ant...

Linear deposition of IgG and complement 3 (C3) along glomerular basement membrane (GBM) is generally revealed in the kidneys of human anti-GBM disease. Our recent studies demonstrated the pathogenic role of complement activation in renal damage of this disease. However, the pathways of complement activation were still paradoxical. In this study, renal biopsy tissues from 10 patients with anti-G...

When the body of P. flava is severed, the animal has the ability to regenerate its missing anterior or posterior as appropriate. We have focused on anterior regeneration when the head and branchial regions are severed from the body of the worm. After transection, the body wall contracts and heals closed in 2 to 3 days. By the third day a small blastema is evident at the point of closure. The bl...

Recovery from acute kidney injury involving tubular epithelial cells requires proliferation and migration of healthy cells to the area of injury. In this study, we show that palladin, a previously characterized cytoskeletal protein, is upregulated in injured tubules and suggest that one of its functions during repair is to facilitate migration of remaining cells to the affected site. In a mouse...

Crescentic forms of glomerulonephritis are characterized by the accumulation of fibrin and cells in Bowman's space and are associated with a rapid loss of renal function. Accumulation of fibrin in the glomerular tufts is thought to promote macrophage infiltration and glomerular injury. To directly explore the role of fibrin(ogen) in the development of crescentic glomerulonephritis, antiglomerul...