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- Epigenetics (5)
- pregnancy (5)
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Background/Aims: Contrast induced acute kidney injury (CI-AKI) remains a serious complication of contrast media enhanced procedures like coronary angiography. There is still a lack of established biomarkers that help to identify patients at high risk for short and long-term complications. The aim of the current study was to evaluate plasma kynurenine as a predictive biomarker for CI-AKI and long-term complications, measured by the combined endpoint "major adverse kidney events" (MAKE) up to 120 days after CM application.
Methods: In this prospective cohort study 245 patients undergoing coronary angiography were analyzed. Blood samples were obtained at baseline, 24h and 48h after contrast media (CM) application to diagnose CI-AKI. Patients were followed for 120 days for adverse clinical events including death, the need for dialysis, and a doubling of plasma creatinine. Occurrence of any of these events was summarized in the combined endpoint MAKE.
Results: Preinterventional plasma kynurenine was not associated with CI-AKI. Patients who later developed MAKE displayed significantly increased preinterventional plasma kynurenine levels (p<0.0001). ROC analysis revealed that preinterventional kynurenine is highly predictive for MAKE (AUC=0.838; p<0.0001). The optimal cutoff was found at >= 3.5 mu mol/L. Using this cutoff, the Kaplan-Meier estimator demonstrated that concentrations of plasma kynurenine >= 3.5 mu mol/L were significantly associated with a higher prevalence of MAKE until follow up (p<0.0001). This association remained significant in multivariate Cox regression models adjusted for relevant factors of long-term renal outcome.
Conclusion: Preinterventional plasma kynurenine might serve as a highly predictive biomarker for MAKE up to 120 days after coronary angiography.
Renal and cardiac effects of DPP-4 inhibitors - from preclinical development to clinical research
(2012)
Inhibitors of type 4 dipeptidyl peptidase (DDP-4) were developed and approved for the oral treatment of type 2 diabetes. Its mode of action is to inhibit the degradation of incretins, such as type 1 glucagon like peptide (GLP-1), and GIP. GLP-1 stimulates glucose-dependent insulin secretion from pancreatic beta-cells and suppresses glucagon release from alpha-cells, thereby improving glucose control. Besides its action on the pancreas type 1 glucagon like peptide has direct effects on the heart, vessels and kidney mainly via the type 1 glucagon like peptide receptor (GLP-1R). Moreover, there are substrates of DPP-4 beyond incretins that have proven renal and cardiovascular effects such as BNP/ANP, NPY, PYY or SDF-1 alpha. Preclinical evidence suggests that DPP-4 inhibitors may be effective in acute and chronic renal failure as well as in cardiac diseases like myocardial infarction and heart failure. Interestingly, large cardiovascular meta-analyses of combined Phase II/III clinical trials with DPP-4 inhibitors point all in the same direction: a potential reduction of cardiovascular events in patients treated with these agents. A pooled analysis of pivotal Phase III, placebo-controlled, registration studies of linagliptin further showed a significant reduction of urinary albumin excretion after 24 weeks of treatment. The observation suggests direct renoprotective effects of DPP-4 inhibition that may go beyond its glucose-lowering potential. Type 4 dipeptidyl peptidase inhibitors have been shown to be very well tolerated in general, but for those excreted via the kidney dose adjustments according to renal function are needed to avoid side effects. In conclusion, the direct cardiac and renal effects seen in preclinical studies as well as meta-analysis of clinical trials may offer additional potentials - beyond improvement of glycemic control - for this newer class of drugs, such as acute kidney failure, chronic kidney failure as well as acute myocardial infarction and heart failure.
Background: The renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system (RAAS) is involved in the pathogenesis of insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes in the general population. The RAAS is activated during pregnancy. However, it is unknown whether the RAAS contributes to glycemia in pregnant women.
Methods: Plasma renin activity (PRA) and plasma aldosterone levels were quantified at delivery in 689 Chinese mothers. An oral glucose tolerance test in fasted women was performed in the second trimester of pregnancy. The diagnosis of gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) and impaired glucose tolerance during pregnancy were made according to the guidelines of the Chinese Society of Obstetrics.
Results: Plasma aldosterone was significantly higher in pregnant women with GDM as compared to those without impairment of glycemic control (normal pregnancies: 0.27 +/- 0.21 ng/mL, GDM: 0.36 +/- 0.30 ng/mL; p<0.05). Regression analyses revealed that PRA was negatively correlated with fasting blood glucose (FBG) (R-2 = 0.03, p = 0.007), whereas plasma aldosterone and aldosterone/PRA ratio were positively correlated with FBG (R-2 = 0.05, p<0.001 and R-2 = 0.03, p = 0.007, respectively). Multivariable regression analysis models considering relevant confounding factors confirmed these findings.
Conclusions: This study demonstrated that fasting blood glucose in pregnant women is inversely correlated with the PRA, whereas plasma aldosterone showed a highly significant positive correlation with fasting blood glucose during pregnancy. Moreover, plasma aldosterone is significantly higher in pregnant women with GDM as compared to those women with normal glucose tolerance during pregnancy. Although causality cannot be proven in association studies, these data may indicate that the RAAS during pregnancy contributes to the pathogenesis of insulin resistance/new onset of diabetes during pregnancy.
In vitro fertilization/intracytoplasmic sperm injection (IVF/ICSI) is associated with an increased risk of preterm (33rd-37th gestational week) and early preterm birth (20th-32nd gestational week). The underlying general and procedure related risk factors are not well understood so far. 4328 infertile women undergoing IVF/ICSI were entered into this study. The study population was divided into three groups: (a) early preterm birth group (n = 66), (b) preterm birth group (n = 675) and (c) full-term birth group (n = 3653). Odds for preterm birth were calculated by stepwise multivariate logistic regression analysis. We identified seven independent risk factors for preterm birth and four independent risk factors for early preterm birth. Older (> 39) or younger (< 25) maternal age (OR: 1.504, 95% CI 1.108-2.042, P = 0.009; OR: 2.125, 95% CI 1.049-4.304, P = 0.036, respectively), multiple pregnancy (OR: 9.780, 95% CI 8.014-11.935, P < 0.001; OR: 8.588, 95% CI 4.866-15.157, P < 0.001, respectively), placenta previa (OR: 14.954, 95% CI 8.053-27.767, P < 0.001; OR: 16.479, 95% CI 4.381-61.976, P < 0.001, respectively), and embryo reduction (OR: 3.547, 95% CI 1.736-7.249, P = 0.001; OR: 7.145, 95% CI 1.990-25.663, P = 0.003, respectively) were associated with preterm birth and early preterm birth, whereas gestational hypertension (OR: 2.494, 95% CI 1.770-3.514, P < 0.001), elevated triglycerides (OR: 1.120, 95% CI 1.011-1.240, P = 0.030) and shorter activated partial thromboplastin time (OR: 0.967, 95% CI 0.949-0.985, P < 0.001) were associated only with preterm birth. In conclusion, preterm and early preterm birth risk factors in patients undergoing assisted IVF/ICSI are in general similar to those in natural pregnancy. The lack of some associations in the early preterm group was most likely due to the lower number of early preterm birth cases. Only embryo reduction represents an IVF/ICSI specific risk factor.
Dipeptidyl peptidase (DPP)-4 inhibitors delay chronic kidney disease (CKD) progression in experimental diabetic nephropathy in a glucose-independent manner. Here we compared the effects of the DPP-4 inhibitor linagliptin versus telmisartan in preventing CKD progression in non-diabetic rats with 5/6 nephrectomy. Animals were allocated to 1 of 4 groups: sham operated plus placebo; 5/6 nephrectomy plus placebo; 5/6 nephrectomy plus linagliptin; and 5/6 nephrectomy plus telmisartan. Interstitial fibrosis was significantly decreased by 48% with linagliptin but a non-significant 24% with telmisartan versus placebo. The urine albumin-to-creatinine ratio was significantly decreased by 66% with linagliptin and 92% with telmisartan versus placebo. Blood pressure was significantly lowered by telmisartan, but it was not affected by linagliptin. As shown by mass spectrometry, the number of altered peptide signals for linagliptin in plasma was 552 and 320 in the kidney. For telmisartan, there were 108 peptide changes in plasma and 363 in the kidney versus placebo. Linagliptin up-regulated peptides derived from collagen type I, apolipoprotein C1, and heterogeneous nuclear ribonucleoproteins A2/B1, a potential downstream target of atrial natriuretic peptide, whereas telmisartan up-regulated angiotensin II. A second study was conducted to confirm these findings in 5/6 nephrectomy wild-type and genetically deficient DPP-4 rats treated with linagliptin or placebo. Linagliptin therapy in wild-type rats was as effective as DPP-4 genetic deficiency in terms of albuminuria reduction. Thus, linagliptin showed comparable efficacy to telmisartan in preventing CKD progression in non-diabetic rats with 5/6 nephrectomy. However, the underlying pathways seem to be different. Copyright (C) 2016, International Society of Nephrology. Published by Elsevier Inc. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
Preclinical work indicates that calcitriol restores vascular function by normalizing the endothelial expression of cyclooxygenase-2 and thromboxane-prostanoid receptors in conditions of estrogen deficiency and thus prevents the thromboxane-prostanoid receptor activation-induced inhibition of nitric oxide synthase. Since endothelial dysfunction is a key factor in the pathogenesis of cardiovascular diseases, this finding may have an important translational impact. It provides a clear rationale to use endothelial function in clinical trials aiming to find the optimal dose of vitamin D for the prevention of cardiovascular events in postmenopausal women.