BackgroundPrevious studies reported that 17β-estradiol may influence the progression of diabetic renal disease in females. The present study was intended to provide an insight into the specific effects of progesterone, the other female sex hormone, in the diabetic renal complications.MethodsAdult female wistar rats were divided into four groups (n = 6/group): intact control (non-diabetic, ND), intact diabetic (D), ovariectomized diabetic (D-OVX) and ovariectomized diabetic which were treated with progesterone (D-OVX + P; 10 mg/kg, s.c, every second day) for 10 weeks. Diabetes was induced by a single dose injection of 55 mg/kg streptozotocin. Expressions of transforming growth factor-β (TGF-β), fibronectin, vascular endothelial growth factor-A (VEGF-A), angiotensin II type 1 receptor (ATR1) and podocyte markers (nephrin and podocin) were assessed by immunohistochemistry and real-time PCR.ResultsThe treatment of D-OVX rats with progesterone attenuated diabetic-associated increases in the urinary albumin to creatinine ratio, glomerulosclerosi and the expression of profibrotic and angiogenic factors (TGF-β, Fibronectin and VEGF-A). Furthermore, progesterone supplementation prevented diabetes-induced downregulation of nephrin and podocin while the overexpression of ATR1 in the diabetic rats was inhibited by the progesterone supplementation.ConclusionThese results provided evidence, for the first time, that the replacement of progesterone can ameliorate the renal damage in the experimental models of diabetic nephropathy through improving the renal function; the inhibition of renal fibrosis and abnormal angiogenesis; along with the amelioration of podocyte injury. Additionally, the blocking of renin-angiotensin system through the down-regulation of ATR1 expression may also account for the reno-protective effect of progesterone.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s13098-015-0097-1) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
Renal failure and kidney disease are major concerns worldwide and are commonly coupled to diseases like hypertension, diabetes, obesity, and hypercholesterolemia. We undertook this study to explore the scope of genetic spectrum underlying the physiopathology of end-stage renal disease (ESRD) using whole exome sequencing (WES) on genomic DNA (gDNA) from 12 unrelated patients in younger ages. We have performed WES on 12 patients in stage of ESRD and analyze the FASTQ data through GATK pipeline. Here, we report for the first time a novel approach of establishing the severity and the magnitude of a disease on different chromosomes and associated karyotypes using chromosome Heatmap. The chromosome Heat will provide us with a road map to narrow down mutations selection leading us to SNPs characterization. Our preliminary results presented in the form of chromosomes HeatMap prelude our ongoing works which consist in identifying and characterizing new genes involved in the problem of renal diseases, results that depict the magnitude of the uncovered genes mutations and their biological implications related to the genome of these patients.
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