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OBJECTIVE: The aim of this exploratory study was to analyze the urinary excretion of Clara cell protein (CC16), a new marker of proximal tubular dysfunction (PTD), in kidney transplantation (KT). MATERIALS AND METHODS: Urinary concentrations of CC16, ß2-microglobulin (ß2m), and N-acetyl-glucosaminidase (NAG) were measured in 50 KT patients (72% men; mean age 50.4 ± 12.4 years; diabetes in 24%; duration of KT 4.3 ± 3.1 years) and 10 healthy controls (6 men; mean age 33.6 ± 13.4 years). RESULTS: Urinary levels of ß2m, NAG, and CC16 were significantly higher in KT patients than in controls: ß2m: 0.77 (interquartile range [IQ] 0.22 to 4.62) g/g vs 0.069 (IQ 0.05 to 0.10) g/g; NAG: 3.16 (IQ 2.09 to 5.33) U/g vs 1.73 (IQ 1.25 to 2.07) U/g; CC16: 26.01 (IQ 8.62 to 123.3) g/g vs 2.51 (IQ 0.83 to 7.18) g/g (P < .001). Elevated levels of ß2m, NAG, and CC16 were found in 81%, 28%, and 71% of KT patients, respectively. Urinary levels of ß2m, NAG, and CC16 significantly increase as glomerular filtration rate (GFR) decreases. Interestingly, in patients with GFR >60 mL/min, we still found high levels of ß2m, NAG, and CC16 in 77%, 13%, and 52%, respectively. Diabetic subjects had significant higher levels of the 3 markers compared with nondiabetic subjects, without differences in albumin excretion or GFR. CC16 showed a positive correlation with urinary albumin (r = 0.42, P < .001), NAG (r = 0.352, P < .05), and ß2m (r = 0.75, P < .001). CONCLUSION: PTD is highly prevalent in KT patients. This is the first study that analyzes CC16 in KT patients, showing that the urinary excretion of this protein is significantly increased in this population. Further studies are needed to examine the clinical value of CC16 in KT patients.

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El síndrome de Goodpasture (SGP) es una rara entidad de base inmunológica, caracterizada por la asociación de una glomerulonefritis rápidamente progresiva (GNRP) y hemorragia alveolar en presencia de anticuerpos antimembrana basal. La afectación del sistema nervioso central (SNC) enel SGP es extremadamente infrecuente en ausencia de ANCA. Presentamos el caso de un paciente de 20 años que comenzó con una GNRP acompañada de esputos hemoptoicos y dos episodios de crisis convulsivas tónico-clónicas generalizadas, en presencia de elevados títulos de anticuerpos antimembrana basal glomerular (Ac-anti-MBG).Tras tratamiento inmunosupresor asociado con plasmaféresis, el paciente presentó descenso de los títulos de Acanti-MBG, así como mejoría de los síntomas neurológicos y respiratorios, aunque sin recuperación de la función renal, permaneciendo en programa de hemodiálisis. Veinte meses más tarde, con la enfermedad en remisión, el paciente recibió un trasplante renal de cadáver (AU)

Goodpasture's syndrome is a rare autoimmune disorder characterized by rapidly progressive glomerulonephritis (RPGN) and alveolar hemorrhage in the presence of antiglomerular basement membrane (anti-GBM) antibodies. Central nervous system involvement is highly unusual in the absence of anti-neutrophil cytoplasmic antibodies. Were port the case of a 20-year-old man with RPGN accompanied by bloody sputum, tonic-clonic seizure and high titers of anti-GBM antibody. After treatment with immune suppressants and plasmapheresis, the patient showed reduced anti-GBM antibody titers and improved neurologic and respiratory symptoms, but renal failure persisted, requiring hemodialysis. Twenty months later, with the disease in remission, he underwent deceased-donor renal transplantation (AU)

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Goodpasture's syndrome is a rare autoimmune disorder characterized by rapidly progressive glomerulonephritis (RPGN) and alveolar hemorrhage in the presence of antiglomerular basement membrane (anti-GBM) antibodies. Central nervous system involvement is highly unusual in the absence of anti-neutrophil cytoplasmic antibodies. We report the case of a 20-year-old man with RPGN accompanied by bloody sputum, tonic-clonic seizure and high titers of anti-GBM antibody. After treatment with immunosuppressants and plasmapheresis, the patient showed reduced anti-GBM antibody titers and improved neurologic and respiratory symptoms, but renal failure persisted, requiring hemodialysis. Twenty months later, with the disease in remission, he underwent deceased-donor renal transplantation.

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Light-chain deposition disease (LCDD) is an uncommon condition in which monoclonal light chains are deposited in different organs causing varying degrees of tissue damage. We report the case of a 56-year-old male with progressive renal failure as the first manifestation of LCDD without initial evidence of monoclonal immunoglobulin protein in either serum or urine. The patient later developed severe systemic disease with rapid multiple organ involvement. Finally, he died 2 months after diagnosis, despite steroid and cyclophosphamide therapy.

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Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) variation among specimens of the northwestern African hare (Lepus capensis schlumbergeri) and three European hares sampled in Spain (L. castroviejoi and L. granatensis, which are endemic to the Iberian Peninsula, and L. europaeus) was analyzed using seven restriction endonucleases. Fourteen haplotypes were found among the 34 animals examined. Restriction site maps were constructed and the phylogeny of the haplotypes was inferred. mtDNA of L. capensis was the most divergent, which is consistent with its allopatric African distribution and with an African origin of European hares. We estimated that mtDNA in hares diverges at a rate of 1.5-1.8% per MY assuming that the European and African populations separated 5-6 MYBP. Maximum intraspecies nucleotides divergences were 1.3% in L. capensis, 2.7% in L. castroviejoi, and 2.3% in L. granatensis but 13.0% in L. europaeus. The latter species contained two main mtDNA lineages, one on the branch leading to L. castroviejoi and the other on that leading to L. granatensis. The separation of these two lineages from the L. castroviejoi or L. granatensis lineages appears to be much older than the first paleontological record of L. europaeus in the Iberian peninsula. This suggests that the apparent polyphyly of L. europaeus is due not to secondary introgression, but to the retention of ancestral polymorphism in L. europaeus. The results suggest that L. europaeus either has evolved as a very large population for a long time or has been fractionated. Such a pattern of persistence of very divergent lineages has also been reported in other species of highly mobile terrestrial mammals. As far as mtDNA is concerned. L. europaeus appears to be the common phylogenetic trunk which has diversified during dispersion over the European continent and from which L. castroviejoi and L. granatensis speciated separately in southwest Europe.

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Intersexual and seasonal comparisons of erythrocyte number, hematocrit, and hemoglobin concentration were conducted for two old world temperate bats, Rhinolophus ferrumequinum and Miniopterus schreibersi. Both species had many small erythrocytes and elevated hemoglobin concentrations. Seasonal differences in erythrocyte count, hemoglobin concentration, and mean cell volume were found in each species. The increase in the number of small erythrocytes in the warm season may be related to heightened activity of the bats during this period. High blood-oxygen capacities associated with high hemoglobin concentrations and hematocrit values increase oxygen delivery to tissues in species with small body size and high metabolic rates.

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The functional properties of hemolysates from the bats Rhinolophus ferrumequinum, Miniopterus schreibersi and Pipistrellus pipistrellus were studied at 25 degrees C and 37 degrees C over the pH range 7.0-7.4. The concentrations of 2,3-DPG and their effect on hemoglobin O2 affinity were also studied under the same conditions. At pH 7.4 and 37 degrees C hemoglobin O2 affinity was higher than in similarly-sized non-flying, normothermic mammals. The Bohr effect values in the three bat species were slightly lower than those reported for small non-flying mammals. The temperature sensitivities of the oxygenation reactions in bat hemoglobins were low, which may be a mechanism for avoiding the effects of abrupt body temperature changes on oxygen loading and unloading by hemoglobin. The levels of 2, 3-DPG high in red blood cells of active bats decrease when the bats are hibernating. Thus changes in hemoglobin O2 affinity are more probably due to changes in 2,3-DPG concentrations than to alterations of body temperature.

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1. Statistically significant variations were observed in the RBC counts and Hb concentration in pregnant females of Pipistrellus pipistrellus. 2. Basic hematological values in 59 animals of five species of insectivorous bats were estimated. 3. Electrophoretic separation of the hemoglobins of Plecotus austriacus, Myotis nattereri and Myotis myotis showed two components, whereas in Miniopterus schreibersi and Pipistrellus pipistrellus appeared three and four components, respectively.

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Five different hemoglobins have been demonstrated by polyacrylamide-gel disk electrophoresis in the species Mus musculus. Oxygen affinities of hemoglobin (P50) from Mus musculus and Pitymys duodecimcostatus hemolysates were determined at pH 7.4 and 37 degrees C. Values obtained for delta log P50/delta pH in hemolysates from both species point out a more pronounced Bohr effect in Pitymys duodecimcostatus.

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A common finding in the sera of leprosy patients is the presence of antinuclear antibodies (ANA), but their specificity for autologous antigens is unknown. The aim of this work was to investigate the reactivity of these ANA toward the cell nuclei of human skin. ANA were investigated in the sera of 35 patients with lepromatous leprosy by immunofluorescence reactions performed with sections of human skin biopsies (autologous from each patient and healthy human skin obtained from plastic surgery procedures), and compared with the results obtained when rat liver was used as substrate. ANA titer, immunofluorescence pattern, immunoglobulin classes (IgG and IgM) and complement-binding capability were also investigated. When human skin sections were used as substrates, 30 out of 35 patients (85.7%) gave positive ANA tests; most of them gave a 1:4 to 1:16 titer for IgG with an annular pattern and 1:4 for IgM with an annular or a granular pattern. ANA of 30 patients bound C1q and 14 bound C3. However, when rat liver sections were used as substrates only 9 out of 35 cases (27.1%) gave positive ANA tests. These results show that human skin sections are a better substrate to demonstrate the ANA present in the sera of patients with lepromatous leprosy. Their significance in the pathogenesis of tissue damage remains to be investigated.

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Six different hemoglobins have been demonstrated by polyacrylamide disc gel electrophoresis in a species of vole Pitymys duodecimcostatus. Plasma proteins of the Pitymys duodecimcostatus were analyzed by polyacrylamide disc gel electrophoresis and there was no significant difference with the electrophoretic patterns of the rat (Rattus norvegicus). The hematological values, hematocrit, hemoglobin concentration and erythrocyte number have been analyzed.

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Se estudio el efecto normalizador de las funciones cutaneas de un sustituto de la cubierta hidrolipidica de la piel en 4 grupos de 15 pacientes cada uno, con piel grasosa, muy grasosa, normal y seca respectivamente. En terminos generales se observo un efecto limpiador e hidratante muy notable y una clara normalizacion de las secreciones en las pieles grasosa y seca, mientras que los portadores de piel normal no sufrieron alteracion.Fue sorprendente la reduccion del matiz melanico de la piel normal, asi como la de melasma, efelides y lentigo solar o senil. Las reacciones secundarias fueron de caracter muy leve y consistieron principalmente en ardor e irritacion pasajeros. Solo en dos casos hubo necesidad de suspender el tratamiento debido a molestias locales mas intensas. El analisis estadistico permite afirmar la similitud de los efectos beneficiosos en los distintos tipos de piel, empleando en cada caso los productos adecuados

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