Having recently described the injurious role of caspase-1-mediated production of the proinflammatory cytokine IL-18 in ischemic acute renal failure (ARF), we report here on the effect of the newly developed caspase inhibitor Quinoline-Val-Asp(Ome)-CH(2)-OPH (OPH-001) on caspase-1, IL-18, neutrophil infiltration, and renal function in ischemic ARF. C57BL/6 mice with ischemic ARF treated with OPH...

As an essential nucleolar protein for ribosomal assembly and protein production, nucleolar GTPase nucleostemin (NS) is often highly expressed in actively proliferative cells, including stem cells and cancer cells, and therefore thought to play an oncogenic role in various types of human cancers [1]. However, given the heterogeneity of cancer cells, imbalanced expression of NS could trigger dist...

BACKGROUND Early detection of acute tubular necrosis (ATN) could permit implementation of salvage therapies and improve patient outcomes in acute renal failure (ARF). The utility of single and combined measurements of urinary tubular enzymes in predicting ARF in critically ill patients has not been evaluated using the receiver-operating characteristic (ROC) plot method. METHODS In this prospe...

Activation of phospholipase D1 (PLD1) by Arf has been implicated in vesicle transport and membrane trafficking. PLD1 has also been shown to be associated with the small GTPase RalA, which functions downstream from Ras in a Ras-RalA GTPase cascade that facilitates intracellular signal transduction. Although PLD1 associates directly with RalA, RalA has no effect upon the activity of PLD1. However...

In agreement with recent studies showing a deleterious effect of growth hormone treatment in critically ill patients, preliminary data showed that insulin-like growth factor I (IGF-I) administration increased the mortality rate of rats with ischemic acute renal failure (ARF). The present study was designed to investigate the mechanism responsible for this unexpected effect. Male rats with ische...

cates the course of hospitalized patients. The incidence of hospital-acquired ARF is between 4.9% and 7%.1,2 ARF occurs commonly in the intensive care unit, with an incidence up to 20% in this setting.3 In contrast, the incidence of communityacquired ARF is 0.9%.4 Despite technical advances in the management of ARF over the past 50 years, mortality rates remain unchanged at 50%.5 Hospital-based...

Acute renal failure (ARF) is a common disease affecting approximately 5% of all hospitalized patients and 10–30% of the patients in intensive care units. The mortality rate is still very high (above 50%), despite advances in the management of critically ill patients and in the renal replacement therapies. Pre-existing or hospital-acquired malnutrition is an important factor contributing to high...

Acute renal failure (ARF) is associated with morbidity and mortality in excess of 50% in the intensive care unit (ICU) setting. A variety of outcome measures have been described in published reports of ARF, however, the studies often do not distinguish between clinical outcomes and surrogate endpoints. Multiple factors can influence these outcomes, including variations in practice. It is import...

Lymphomagenesis in Emu-Myc mice is opposed by the Arf tumor suppressor, whose inactivation compromises p53 function and accelerates disease. Finding nascent Emu-Myc-induced tumors in which p19Arf causes cell-cycle arrest or apoptosis is problematic, since such cells will be eliminated until Arf or p53 function is lost. Knock-in mice expressing a green fluorescent protein (GFP) in lieu of Arf co...

Oncogenic stress induces expression of the alternate reading frame (Arf) tumor suppressor protein. Arf then stabilizes p53, which leads to cell cycle arrest or apoptosis. The mechanisms that distinguish both outcomes are incompletely understood. In this study, we show that Arf interacts with the Myc-associated zinc finger protein Miz1. Binding of Arf disrupts the interaction of Miz1 with its co...