Hypertension and diabetes are clinical conditions which contribute to the development of chronic kidney disease as well as risk factors for cardiovascular events. In recent years, lipocalin-type-prostaglandin-D-synthase (beta trace protein; BTP) has increasingly been studied as an alternative to creatinine for the evaluation of renal function as well as for being a possible biomarker for cardio...

BACKGROUND An increasing number of asthma cases upon exposure to hamsters and anaphylactic reactions following hamster bites are being reported, but the allergens responsible are still poorly characterized. In the Golden hamster, male-specific submaxillary gland protein (MSP), a lipocalin expressed in a sex- and tissue-specific manner in the submaxillary and lacrimal glands, is secreted in the ...

The origins of tick toxicoses remain a subject of controversy because no molecular data are yet available to study the evolution of tick-derived toxins. In this study we describe the molecular structure of toxins from the soft tick, Ornithodoros savignyi. The tick salivary gland proteins (TSGPs) are four highly abundant proteins proposed to play a role in salivary gland granule biogenesis of th...

Cold perfusion through the renal arteries during renal ischemia has been suggested to diminish postoperative renal damage after juxtarenal aortic aneurysm repair. As the kidneys play a key role in dimethylarginine metabolism, which in turn is associated with renal hemodynamics, we hypothesized that the protective effect of cold perfusion is associated with a preserved renal extraction of dimeth...

Biomolecular reagents that enable the specific molecular recognition of proteins play a crucial role in basic research as well as medicine. Up to now, antibodies (immunoglobulins) have been widely used for this purpose. Their predominant feature is the vast repertoire of antigen-binding sites that arise from a set of 6 hypervariable loops. However, antibodies suffer from practical disadvantages...

Human tear lipocalin [lipocalin 1 (lcn-1); von Ebner's gland protein] is a member of the lipocalin superfamily that is known to bind an unusual variety of lipophilic ligands. Because of its properties and its tissue-specific expression it has been suggested that lcn-1 might act as a physiological protection factor of epithelia. Overexpression of lcn-1 under certain disease conditions supported ...

BACKGROUND Delayed graft function is a main complication after deceased donor kidney transplantation that adversely affects graft outcome. Difficulties in prediction and early detection of delayed graft function have hindered the ability to perform proper therapeutic interventions. We investigated whether measuring urinary interleukin 18 and neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin as markers...

AIMS Lipocalin-2 is a pro-inflammatory molecule characterized by a highly diversified pattern of expression and structure-functional relationships. In vivo, this molecule exists as multiple variants due to post-translational modifications and/or protein-protein interactions. Lipocalin-2 is modified by polyamination, which enhances the clearance of this protein from the circulation and prevents ...

BACKGROUND Atherosclerotic renal artery stenosis (ARAS) is known to reduce renal blood flow, glomerular filtration rate (GFR) and amplify kidney hypoxia, but the relationships between these factors and tubulointerstitial injury in the poststenotic kidney are poorly understood. The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of renal revascularization in ARAS on renal tissue hypoxia and rena...

Prostaglandin (PG) D2 has been proposed to be essential for the initiation and maintenance of the physiological sleep of rats because intracerebroventricular administration of selenium tetrachloride (SeCl4), a selective inhibitor of PGD synthase (PGDS), was shown to reduce promptly and effectively the amounts of sleep during the period of infusion. However, gene knockout (KO) mice of PGDS and p...