A young male is evaluated for nephrotic-range proteinuria, hypercalciuria, and an elevated serum creatinine. A renal biopsy is performed and shows focal global glomerulosclerosis. The absence of nephrotic syndrome suggest that glomerulosclerosis was a secondary process. Further analysis of the proteinuria showed it to be due mainly to low-molecular weight proteins. The case illustrates the cruc...

Focal segmental glomerulosclerosis (FSGS) is a common cause of proteinuria and nephrotic syndrome leading to end stage renal disease (ESRD). There are two types of FSGS, primary (idiopathic) and secondary forms. Secondary FSGS shows less severe clinical features compared to those of the primary one. However, secondary FSGS has an important clinical significance because a variety of renal diseas...

Podocyte depletion leads to glomerulosclerosis, but whether an impaired capacity of podocytes to respond to hypertrophic stress also causes glomerulosclerosis is unknown. We generated transgenic Fischer 344 rats that express a dominant negative AA-4E-BP1 transgene driven by the podocin promoter; a member of the mammalian target of rapamycin complex 1 (mTORC1) pathway, 4E-BP1 modulates cap-depen...

Activation of prorenin by (pro)renin receptor stimulates the tissue renin-angiotensin system and plays a significant role in the development of nephropathy in diabetic animals. This study examined whether (pro)renin receptor blockade inhibits the progression of nephropathy that has already developed in diabetic rats. Seventeen-week-old heminephrectomized streptozotocin-induced diabetic rats wit...

It is well documented that the incidence of renal disease, and therefore renal dysfunction, increases with age in many species of mammals. Such alterations in renal structure and function may significantly affect long-term toxicology studies. The purpose of this study was to assess the temporal evolution of glomerulosclerosis, an important renal lesion, in laboratory housed dogs, an important m...

A delicate balance exists between ECM synthesis and degradation such that interruption of the corresponding pathways results in increased plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 (PAI-1), pathological matrix accumulation, and glomerulosclerosis. A new study demonstrates that therapy with a mutant PAI-1 increases matrix turnover and reduces glomerulosclerosis by competing with endogenous PAI-1, suggest...

The increased risk of end-stage kidney disease (ESKD) among hypertensive African Americans is partly related to APOL1 allele variants. Hypertension-associated arterionephrosclerosis consists of arteriosclerosis, glomerulosclerosis, and cortical fibrosis. The initial glomerulosclerosis, attributed to preglomerular arteriosclerosis and ischemia, consists of focal global glomerulosclerosis (FGGS),...

BACKGROUND African Americans have more severe hypertensive nephrosclerosis than white Americans, possibly at similar levels of blood pressure. Glomerular volume is increased in African Americans relative to whites, but it is uncertain how this relates to nephrosclerosis and whether it contributes to or compensates for glomerulosclerosis. METHODS Stereological disector/fractionator estimates o...