No abstract

Our findings on differential expression of PLAC1 in PCa plus its positive association with Gleason score and negative correlation with PSA expression highlight the potential usefulness of PLAC1 for targeted PC therapy especially for patients with advanced disease.

Purpose: Hypercalciuria is one of the risk factors for calcium kidney stone formation (the most common type of urinary stones). Although vitamin D deficiency is prevalent among urolithiasis patients, the effect of vitamin D supplementation on urine calcium in these patients is still unclear. Materials and Methods: In this retrospective study, medical and laboratory tests records of 26 patients with recurrent calcium kidney stones and vitamin D deficiency treated with 50000IU vitamin D per week for 8-12 weeks were analyzed. The changes in 24-hour urine calcium (24-h Ca), serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25 (OH) D), serum parathormone (PTH), other 24-hour urine metabolites and calculated relative supersaturations of calcium oxalate (CaOxSS), calcium phosphate (CaPSS) and uric acid (UASS) were assessed. Moreover, correlations between changes in 24-h Ca and other aforementioned variables were assessed. Results: Serum 25 (OH) D and 24-h Ca increased after vitamin D supplementation, while serum PTH decreased (p < 0.001, for all analyses). The levels of 24-hour urine sodium and urea increased significantly (p = 0.005 and p = 0.031, respectively). The levels of CaOxSS and CaPSS increased, but the changes were not significant (p = 0.177, and p = 0.218, respectively). There were no correlations between the changes in 24-h Ca and serum 25 (OH) D or PTH. Conclusions: The result of current study suggests that although urine Ca increased in vitamin D supplemented patients, this increase was not associated with the increase in serum vitamin D and may be due to other factors such as dietary factors. Further randomized clinical trials considering other factors associated with urine Ca are warranted.

Urolithiasis is a common, highly recurrent disease with increasing prevalence worldwide. The association between vitamin D and calcium stones has often been investigated on the basis of the role of vitamin D in calcium homeostasis. Currently, there is no consensus on the management of vitamin D deficiency in patients with renal calculi, because of controversies about the relationship between vitamin D and calcium stones. However, the vitamin D deficiency is shown to be highly prevalent among kidney stone formers, and some studies found a higher prevalence in stone formers compared with non-stone formers. This article attempts to review the relationship between calcium stones and vitamin D, and propose a mechanism for the association between vitamin D deficiency and calcium-based calculi according to the substantial role of inflammation and oxidative stress in calcium stone formation and also the pro-inflammatory effect of vitamin D deficiency.

Objectives To investigate potential oxalate‐degrading bacteria, including Oxalobacter formigenes, Lactobacillus (Lac) and Bifidobacterium (Bif) genera, and Oxalyl‐CoA decarboxylase (oxc) encoding Lac (LX) and Bif (BX) species in participants with recurrent calcium kidney stones, and their correlation with 24‐h urine oxalate. Participants and Methods Stool and 24‐h urine samples were collected from 58 patients with urolithiasis (29 cases with and 29 without hyperoxaluria) and 29 healthy controls. Absolute quantitation and relative abundance of the bacteria were measured by real‐time PCR. The relationship between the investigated bacteria and 24‐h urine oxalate were assessed statistically. Results The count per gram of stool and relative abundance of O. formigenes, Lac, Bif, LX and BX and the number of participants carrying O. formigenes, LX and BX bacteria were not significantly different between the groups; however, the relative abundance of O. formigenes in the kidney stone group was lower than in healthy controls (P = 0.035). More healthy controls were O. formigenes‐positive compared with participants in the kidney stone group (P = 0.052). The results of the linear regression model, including all study participants, showed that the presence of O. formigenes could decrease 24‐h urine oxalate (β = −8.4, P = 0.047). Neither Lac and Bif genera nor LX and BX species were correlated with calcium stones or urine oxalate. Conclusion These results emphasize the role of O. formigenes in kidney stone formation and its role in hyperoxaluria, which may be independent of kidney stone disease. Moreover, our results suggest that, although some Lac and Bif strains have oxalate‐degrading potential, they may not be among the major oxalate‐degrading bacteria of the gut microbiome.