1,721,119 research outputs found
Proteomics of Crystal–Cell Interactions: A Model for Kidney Stone Research
No full textNephrolithiasis/urolithiasis (i.e., kidney stone disease) remains a global public health problem with increasing incidence/prevalence. The most common chemical composition of kidney stones is calcium oxalate that initiates stone formation by crystallization, crystal growth, crystal aggregation, crystal–cell adhesion, and crystal invasion through extracellular matrix in renal interstitium. Among these processes, crystal–cell interactions (defined as “the phenomena in which the cell is altered by any means of effects from the crystal that adheres onto cellular surface or is internalized into the cell, accompanying with changes of the crystal, e.g., growth, adhesive capability, degradation, etc., induced by the cell”) are very important for crystal retention in the kidney. During the past 12 years, proteomics has been extensively applied to kidney stone research aiming for better understanding of the pathogenic mechanisms of kidney stone formation. This article provides an overview of the current knowledge in this field and summarizes the data obtained from all the studies that applied proteomics to the investigations of crystal–cell interactions that subsequently led to functional studies to address the significant impact or functional roles of the expression proteomics data in the pathogenesis of kidney stone disease
Study of diabetic nephropathy in the proteomic era
No full textDiabetic nephropathy (DN) remains a major complication of diabetes leading to end-stage renal disease (ESRD). The number of diabetic patients with ESRD who require renal replacement therapy has been increasing, implicating unsuccessful prevention of dia-betic renal complication. This unfavorable outcome reflects insufficient knowledge on pathogenic mechanisms of DN and its detection at late stage. Currently, microalbuminu-ria is used for diagnosis of DN. However, some patients with microalbuminuria have advanced renal pathological changes indicating that microalbuminuria is not the perfect marker for early detection of DN and a better biomarker is urgently needed. Recently, particularly after the completion of the Human Genome Project, proteomics (systematic analysis of proteins for their identity, quantity and function) has been recognized as an emerging subdiscipline of modern sciences. During the past decade, proteomics has been widely applied to several areas of biomedical research, including the investigation of DN. This chapter summarizes recent progress of proteomics applied to DN with ulti-mate goals to better understand its pathogenic mechanisms and to search for novel bio
- …
