Reperfusion of ischemic organs induces a potent inflammatory response initiated by the generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) that directly damage tissue and promote leukocyte infiltration and activation that also mediate tissue injury. We recently found that radiation-induced tissue injury, which is caused by radiation induced ROS, is attenuated by administration of CBLB502, a pharmacologically optimized derivative of the Toll-like receptor 5 (TLR5) agonist flagellin. Therefore, we tested the ability of CBLB502 to attenuate injury in a murine model of acute ischemic renal failure. CBLB502 given 30 minutes before imposition of bilateral renal pedicle occlusion provided marked protection against the renal dysfunction and inflammation that follows reperfusion of ischemic kidneys, including marked decreases in leukocyte infiltration, proinflammatory cytokine production, and tubular injury. Importantly, CBLB502 given within 30 minutes after ischemic kidney reperfusion reproduced the protective effects of pretreatment with the TLR5 agonist, indicating a window following reperfusion in which CBLB502 administration abrogates acute renal ischemic failure. Bone marrow reconstituted chimeras were used to show that the protective effects of CBLB502 could be delivered by intact MyD88 signaling on renal parenchymal cells. Consistent with this, antibody staining of kidney sections indicated that cells lining the renal vasculature expressed TLR5. Overall, these results indicate the use of TLR5 agonists as mitigators and protectants of acute renal ischemic failure.

Bladder atrophy in renal transplant recipients after long-term dialysis therapy is associated with a higher risk of urological complications.

We report monozygotic twins of different sexual phenotypes. One of the twins had complete female external genitalia except for a mild clitoromegaly. She had bilateral gonads consisting of the wavy stroma and scant dysgenetic seminiferous tubules. No androgen secretion was induced by gonadotrophin stimulation. The other twin had hypospadiac male genitalia. His gonads were located intrascrotally and he had good androgenic response to a stimulation test. Conventional and fluorescence in situ hybridization chromosome analysis disclosed that both twins had a 47,X,idic(Y),idic(Y)/46,X,idic(Y)/45,X and 47,X, + mar x 2.ish idic(Y)(q11.2)(DYZ3++ x 2)/46,X, + mar.ish idic(Y)(q11.2)(DZY3++)/45,X. These twins were clinically monochorionic and allelotype analysis in these twins and their parents with microsatellite markers showed the affirmative probability of 0.999999994 for monozygosity. The ratio of mosaicism, gonadal histology, and testosterone productivity were reasonably correlated to the genital virilization in these monozygotic twins, showing discordant sexual phenotypes.

ObjectiveUrinary extracellular vesicles (EV) could be promising biomarkers for urological diseases. In this retrospective feasibility study, we conducted biomarker screening for early stage bladder cancer using EV mRNA analysis.MethodsBiomarker candidates were identified through RNA-seq analysis of urinary EV from patients with non-muscle invasive bladder cancer (N=3), advanced urothelial cancer (N=3), no residual tumor after TURBT (N=2), and healthy and disease controls (N=4). Diagnostic performance was evaluated by RT-qPCR in a larger patient group including bladder cancer (N=173), renal pelvis and ureter cancer (N=33), no residual tumor and non-cancer disease control (N=36).ResultsUrinary EV SLC2A1, GPRC5A and KRT17 were overexpressed in pT1 and higher stage bladder cancer by 20.6-fold, 18.2-fold and 29.5-fold, respectively. These genes allowed detection of non-muscle invasive bladder cancer (AUC: 0.56 to 0.64 for pTa, 0.62 to 0.80 for pTis, and 0.82 to 0.86 for pT1) as well as pT2 and higher muscle invasive bladder cancer (AUC: 0.72 to 0.90). Subgroup analysis indicated that these markers could be useful for the detection of cytology-negative/-suspicious and recurrent bladder cancers.ConclusionThree urinary EV mRNA were discovered to be elevated in bladder cancer. Urinary EV mRNA are promising biomarkers of urothelial cancer and worth further investigation.