BACKGROUND Tacrolimus (Tac) is a potent immunosuppressant with considerable toxicity. Tac pharmacokinetics varies between individuals and thus complicates its use in preventing rejection after kidney transplantation. This variability might be caused by genetic polymorphisms in metabolizing enzymes. METHODS We used TaqMan analyses to evaluate the impact of a newly discovered CYP3A4 (cytochrome...

OBJECTIVE Several studies have reported that tacrolimus (TAC) significantly reduced proteinuria in lupus nephritis (LN) patients and mouse models. However, the mechanism for this effect remains undetermined. This study explored the mechanism of how TAC protects podocytes from injury to identify new targets for protecting renal function. METHODS MRL/lpr mice were given TAC at a dosage of 0.1 m...

Objectives: Immunosuppressive therapy plays an important role in patients with idiopathic membranous nephropathy (IMN). Evidence regarding the optimal kind of calcineurin inhibitors (CNIs) in treatment of IMN remains unclear. The objective of this study was to examine whether tacrolimus (TAC) is more effective and safe than cyclosporine (CsA) in treating IMN patients. Methods: We conducted a pr...

Introduction Both cCTX/GCs and CNIs are recommended as first-line agents in the management of PMN. The present study is an extended report of patients randomized to receive TAC/GCs or cCTX/GCs at 2 years post randomization. Methods Seventy patients enrolled in the clinical trial Tacrolimus Combined With Corticosteroids Versus Modified Ponticelli Regimen in Treatment of Idiopathic Membranous N...

Cyclosporine microemulsion (CyA) and tacrolimus (Tac) are the principal immunosuppressants prescribed for adult and pediatric renal transplantation. In the majority of patients, these calcineurin inhibitors have been used in combination with other immunosuppressive drugs, such as azathioprine or mycophenolate mofetil (MMF). In this review we will address the question of what calcineurin inhibit...

We assessed binocular grating visual acuity with the Teller acuity cards (TAC) in 3-36-month-olds at risk for visual disorders. After 3-8 years, each child was assessed with the TAC and with a battery of tests of spatial and non-spatial vision. The initial TAC score: (1) was uncorrelated with any of the later measures; (2) had low positive, but high negative predictive value for the later tests...

BACKGROUND Ventricular remodeling increases the propensity of ventricular tachyarrhythmias and sudden death in patients. We studied the mechanism underlying these fatal arrhythmias, electrical and structural cardiac remodeling, as well as arrhythmogeneity during early, compensated hypertrophy in a rat model of chronic pressure overload. METHODS Twenty-six Wistar rats were subjected to transve...

Power Trading Agent Competition (Power TAC) is a recently developed smart grid power market simulator that represents one competition scenario of the Trading Agent Competitions (TAC) international forum. According to the recent liberalization of power systems, the idea of Power TAC is the development of agent-based architectures which will provide realistic tests for the creation of future elec...

The aim of this study was to test in vitro the efficacy of TAC, an original G-quadruplex ligand, as a potential radiosensitizing agent for glioblastoma multiforme (GBM). Two human radioresistant telomerase-positive GBM cell lines (SF763 and SF767) were analyzed, with and without TAC treatment, for telomere length, cell proliferation, apoptosis, cell-cycle distribution, gene expression, cytogene...

Stromal interaction molecule 1 (STIM1), an endo/sarcoplasmic reticulum Ca2+ sensor, has been shown to control a Ca2+-dependent signal that promotes cardiac hypertrophy. However, whether STIM1 has adaptive role that helps to protect against cardiac overload stress remains unknown. We hypothesized that STIM1 deficiency causes a maladaptive response to pressure overload stress. We investigated STI...