The hydronephrotic kidney, resulting from a ureteropelvic junction obstruction (UPJO), presents commonly as a clinical condition, with the presence of usually no more than 1–2 liters in the collecting system, but a very small number of cases of giant hydronephroses (GHs) has been reported in adults. A GH is defined as the adult renal pelvis containing >1 liter of urine, or at least 1.5% of the body weight. In the majority of cases, the range of the hydronephrotic kidney remains restricted to the renal area. However, the patient described in the present case report had a range for the hydronephrotic kidney which occupied almost the entire abdominal cavity (~24 l), and cases such as these are rarely presented; therefore the aim of the present case study was to document a clear case of GH resulting from UPJO, also accompanied by a review of the current literature.

Aerobactin is a citrate-hydroxamate siderophore that is critical for the virulence of pathogenic enteric bacteria. However, although the aerobactin-producing iucABCD-iutA operon is distributed widely in the genomes of Yersinia species, none of the pathogenic Yersinia spp. was found to produce aerobactin. Here, we showed that the iucABCD-iutA operon in the food-borne enteric pathogen Yersinia pseudotuberculosis YPIII is a functional siderophore system involved in iron acquisition. The expression of the operon was found to be directly repressed by the ferric uptake regulator (Fur) in an iron concentration-dependent manner. In addition, we demonstrated that the aerobactin-mediated iron acquisition contributes to bacterial growth under iron-limited conditions. Moreover, we provided evidence that aerobactin plays important roles in biofilm formation, resistance to oxidative stress, ROS removal, and virulence of Y. pseudotuberculosis. Overall, our study not only uncovered a novel strategy of iron acquisition in Y. pseudotuberculosis but also highlighted the importance of aerobactin in the pathogenesis of Y. pseudotuberculosis.

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Abstract. Cancerous inhibitor of protein phosphatase 2A (CIP2A) is a newly characterized oncoprotein involved in a variety of malignant tumors. However, its expression pattern and biological functions in clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC) remain unclear. In the present study, our findings demonstrated that expressions of CIP2A mRNA and protein in ccRCC tissues and cell lines were significantly higher than those in paired normal renal tissues or normal renal tubular epithelial cells (P<0.05). High CIP2A level was closely correlated with T stage (P=0.001), tumor size (P=0.009), lymph node metastasis (P=0.014), vascular invasion (P=0.018) and high Snail expression (P<0.001). Additionally, ccRCC patients with high CIP2A expression had significantly shorter overall survival (OS, P<0.001) and disease-free survival (DFS, P<0.001) when compared with patients with the low expression of CIP2A. On Cox multivariate analysis, CIP2A overexpression was an independent and significant prognostic factor for OS (P=0.010) and DFS (P=0.004). Furthermore, knockdown of the CIP2A expression significantly reduced ccRCC cell invasion, with decreased Snail and Vimentin expression, and increased E-cadherin expression. Taken together, our data identified CIP2A as a critical oncoprotein involved in cell invasion and epithelial mesenchymal transition (EMT), which could serve as a therapeutic target in ccRCC.

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