Tissue fibrosis and chronic inflammation are common causes of progressive organ damage, including progressive renal disease, leading to loss of physiological functions. Recently, it was shown that Toll-like receptor 2 (TLR2) is expressed in the kidney and activated by endogenous danger signals. The expression and function of TLR2 during renal fibrosis and chronic inflammation has however not ye...

Both metabolic and haemodynamic pathways impact on the progressionof diabetic nephropathy [1,2]. Chronic hyperglycaemia, advanced glycation end (AGE) products, increase of sorbitol, activation of protein kinase C (PKC), glomerular hypertension and genetic susceptibility have been identified as risk factors in the progression of diabetic nephropathy [2]. Moreover, infiltration of the diseased ki...

This study investigated the effects of Naja naja atra venom (NNAV) on acute and chronic nephropathy in rats. Rats received 6 mg/kg adriamycin (ADR) once to evoke the chronic nephropathy or 8 ml/kg 50% v/v glycerol to produce acute renal failure (ARF). The NNAV was given orally once a day starting five days prior to ADR or glycerol injection and continued to the end of experiments. The animals w...

Chronic endothelial damage plays an important role in the development of angiopathy in diabetes mellitus (1). Since diabetic nephropathy is not determined in forty percent of patients with nonregulated type I diabetes mellitus, it is conceived that the role of hyperglycemia in angiopathy development is not very important. In addition to hyperglycemia, factors such as hypertension, hypercholeste...

Contrast-induced nephropathy is defined as a serum creatinine level that increases by at least 25% or is 44.2 μmol/L greater than baseline within three days of receiving contrast medium intravascularly in the ab sence of another cause. Contrastinduced nephropathy is usually selflimiting; at worst, it can make the patient permanently dependent on hemodialysis or can result in death. Main risk fa...

Vesicoureteric reflux (VUR) is a common congenital defect of the urinary tract that is usually discovered after a child develops a urinary tract infection. It is associated with reflux nephropathy, a renal lesion characterized by the presence of chronic tubulointersitial inflammation and fibrosis. Most patients are diagnosed with reflux nephropathy after one or more febrile urinary tract infect...

Probably, the most paradigmatic example of diabetic complication is diabetic nephropathy, which is the largest single cause of end-stage renal disease and a medical catastrophe of worldwide dimensions. Metabolic and hemodynamic alterations have been considered as the classical factors involved in the development of renal injury in patients with diabetes mellitus. However, the exact pathogenic m...