The kidney glomerulus plays a pivotal role in ultrafiltration of plasma into urine and also is the locus of kidney disease progressing to chronic renal failure. We have focused proteomic analysis on the glomerulus that is most proximal to the disease locus. In the present study, we aimed to provide a confident, in-depth profiling of the glomerulus proteome. The glomeruli were highly purified from the kidney cortex from a male, 68-year-old patient who underwent nephroureterectomy due to ureter carcinoma. The patient was normal in clinical examinations including serum creatinine and urea levels and liver function, and did not receive any chemotherapy and radiotherapy. The cortical tissue was histologically normal, and no significant deposition of immunoglobulins and complement C3 was observed. We employed a novel strategy of protein separation using 1D (SDS-PAGE) and 2D (solution-phase IEF in combination with SDS-PAGE) prefractionation prior to the shotgun analysis with LC-MS/MS. The protein prefractionation produced 90 fractions, and eventually provided a confident set of identified proteins consisting of 6686 unique proteins (3679 proteins with two or more peptide matches and 3007 proteins with one peptide match), representing 2966 distinct genes. All the identified proteins were annotated and classified in terms of molecular function and biological process, compiled into 1D and 2D protein arrays, consisting of 15 and 75 sections, corresponding to the protein fractions which were defined by MW and pI range, and deposited on a Web-based database (http://www.hkupp.org). The most remarkable feature of the glomerulus proteome was a high incidence of identification of cytoskeleton-related proteins, presumably reflecting the well-developed, cytoskeletal organization of glomerular cells related to their physiological functions.

From January 17, 1992 to January 16, 1993, laparoscopic adrenalectomy was performed in 7 patients (3 men, 4 women) with primary aldosteronism ranging in age from 35 to 65 years (mean 48.7 years). Five of the adrenal lesions were on the left side and two were on the right. Five to six trocar-sheath units were used, and adrenal tumors were successfully removed with adjacent normal adrenal glands in all patients. The operative time ranged from 165 to 572 min (mean 302 min), operative blood loss was between 50 and 450 ml (mean 217.2 ml), and there was no major complication. In conclusion, laparoscopic adrenalectomy is a safe alternative operative method for primary aldosteronism, although application of this technique to other types of adrenal lesions remains to be examined.

Expression of intercellular adhesion molecule-1 (ICAM-1) and major histocompatibility complex (MHC) antigens, and characterization of tumor-infiltrating mononuclear cells (TIM) were examined immunohistologically in 10 specimens of seminoma. ICAM-1 and MHC antigens were not detected on normal spermatogenic cells. ICAM-1 and MHC class I antigens were variably expressed in 7 and 9 seminomas, respectively, whereas class II antigens were not detected. Although the degree of expression of ICAM-1 and MHC antigens was not correlated with any clinical or histopathological factors, neither of the antigens was detected on an anaplastic seminoma. Various numbers of TIM were detected in all of the seminoma, and comprised mainly T cells bearing the lymphocyte function-associated antigen (LFA)-1. No significant correlation was noticed between the degree of lymphocyte infiltration and ICAM-1 or MHC antigen expression. Although ICAM-1 and MHC class I antigens were expressed in seminoma, possibly facilitating an anti-tumor reaction of host, their expression remained low in several cases, despite marked lymphocyte infiltration within the tumor.