In order to investigate the interdependent action of the insertion/deletion polymorphism of the angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) gene and polymorphism in exon 11 (C1136-->T; Ala379Val) of the platelet-activating factor acetylhydrolase (PAF-AH) gene, which encodes a functional antagonist of PAF, on the progression of immunoglobulin A (IgA) nephropathy, we analysed both polymorphisms in patients with primary IgA nephropathy, who were followed-up for longer than 3 years. During the follow-up (87.3 +/- 50.0 months), the disease progressed in 38 of the 191 patients (19.9%). The D allele of the ACE gene in the absence of the T allele of the PAF-AH gene did not affect the prognosis [odds ratio (OR), 3.6; 95% confidence interval (CI), 0.8-16.4] and neither did the T allele in the absence of the D allele (OR, 3.0; 95% CI, 0.4-24.2). However, the presence of both was a significant prognostic factor (OR, 6.6; 95% CI, 1.4-31.3). After adjusting for other risk factors, the presence of both proved to be an independent risk factor (OR, 4.5; 95% CI, 1.6-12.7). These results suggest that the interdependent effects of ACE and PAF-AH polymorphisms on the progression of IgA nephropathy might be more important than the effect of the individual polymorphisms.

We developed a two-stage temperature control system for a long-term stable measurement of AMoRE neutrinoless double beta decay experiment using a dilution refrigerator. The first-stage control was made with a standard PID system using an AC bridge with a ruthenium oxide thermometer as the main thermometer of the mixing chamber plate. The second-stage control was obtained with a magnetic microcalorimeter (MMC) that is configured as a sensitive thermometer for a detector tower, the main experiment. Under single-stage temperature control on the temperature of the mixing chamber plate only with the RuO2 thermometer, the MMC recorded temperature stability of the detector plate of 9 μK rms over 100 min. Under two-stage temperature control, with the first-stage of the mixing chamber plate at 11 mK via the RuO2 thermometer and the second-stage of the detector plate at 12 mK via the MMC, the MMC recorded a temperature stability of 0.5 μK rms over 100 min. Moreover, the heat channels of the AMoRE experiment obtained considerable improvement in energy resolutions when switching from single-stage (RuO2) to two-stage (RuO2 + MMC) control.