Albuminuria is a hallmark of kidney disease of various etiologies and usually caused by deterioration of glomerular filtration barrier integrity. We recently showed that angiotensin II (Ang II) acutely increases albumin filtration in the healthy kidney. Here, we used intravital microscopy to assess the effects of Ang II on podocyte function in rats. Acute infusion of 30, 60, or 80 ng/kg per min...

Podocyturia, the shedding of live podocytes, is present at delivery in women with preeclampsia. The aim of this study was to test whether podocyturia is present earlier in pregnancy and predicts for preeclampsia. We also aimed to compare test characteristics of podocyturia with those of angiogenic factors previously implicated in the pathogenesis of this disorder. We prospectively enrolled 315 ...

Podocytes form unique cell-cell junctions (slit diaphragms) that are central to glomerular selectivity, although regulation and mechanisms of slit diaphragm assembly are poorly understood. With the use of cultured podocytes, a paracellular permeability flux assay was established to characterize properties of the size-selective barrier. Paracellular flux of differentiated podocytes was measured ...

CD40/CD40 ligand (CD40L) dyad, a co-stimulatory bi-molecular complex involved in the adaptive immune response, has also potent pro-inflammatory actions in haematopoietic and non-haematopoietic cells. We describe here a novel role for soluble CD40L (sCD40L) as modifier of glomerular permselectivity directly acting on glomerular epithelial cells (GECs). We found that stimulation of CD40, constitu...

prosite database contains a set of entries corresponding to protein families, which are used to identify the family of a protein from its sequence. although patterns and profiles are developed to be very selective, each may have false positive or negative hits. considering false positives as items that reduce the selectiveness of a pattern, then, the more selective pattern we have, a more accur...

BACKGROUND Membranous proliferative glomerulonephritis (MPGN) is a major primary cause of chronic kidney disease (CKD). Podocyte injury is crucial in the pathogenesis of glomerular disease with proteinuria, leading to CKD. To assess podocyte injuries in MPGN, the pathological features of spontaneous murine models were analyzed. METHODS The autoimmune-prone mice strains BXSB/MpJ-Yaa and B6.MRL...

Patients with nail-patella syndrome often suffer from a nephropathy, which ultimately results in chronic renal failure. The finding that this disease is caused by mutations in the transcription factor LMX1B, which in the kidney is expressed exclusively in podocytes, offers the opportunity for a better understanding of the renal pathogenesis. In our analysis of the nephropathy in nail-patella sy...

The present study was designed to examine the protective effect of notoginsenoside R1 (NR1) on podocytes in a rat model of streptozotocin (STZ)‑induced diabetic nephropathy (DN), and to explore the mechanism responsible for NR1-induced renal protection. Diabetes was induced by a single injection of STZ, and NR1 was administered daily at a dose of 5 mg/kg (low dose), 10 mg/kg (medium) and 20 mg/...