[Current status of hyperkalemia in dialysis patients in China].

Objective: To investigate the prevalence and associated factors of hyperkalemia in dialysis patients. Methods: Patients underwent hemodialysis (HD) and peritoneal dialysis (PD) from multi-center databases were recruited from January 2017 to December 2019, and those aged ≥18 years and with dialysis duration ≥3 months were included to analyze the prevalence and related factors of hyperkalemia. Results: A total of 12 364 patients were enrolled in the study, and 6 836 cases were men. The average age of the patients was (51±15) years. Among these patients, 4 230 cases underwent HD while 8 134 received PD. Hyperkalemia was detected in 20.7% (2 554/12 364) of the patients while hypokalemia was found in 17.0%(2 102/12 364) of the patients. Multivariate logistic regression showed that HD (OR=2.25, 95%CI: 1.54-3.30), diabetes mellitus (DM) (OR=1.65, 95%CI: 1.17-2.32), high body mass index (BMI) (OR=1.06, 95%CI: 1.03-1.09), high levels of serum albumin (OR=1.04, 95%CI: 1.01-1.07) and phosphorus (OR=3.12, 95%CI: 2.44-4.00), low levels of serum bicarbonate (OR=0.89, 95%CI: 0.87-0.92), triglycerides (OR=0.76, 95%CI: 0.68-0.85) and creatinine (OR=0.95, 95%CI: 0.90-0.99), usage of angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitor/Angiotensin Ⅱ receptor antagonist (ACEI/ARB, OR=1.38, 95%CI: 1.11-1.72) and beta-blocker (OR=1.32, 95%CI: 1.07-1.64) were associated with hyperkalemia. Conclusions: Hyperkalemia occurred in 20.7% of the dialysis patients. HD, DM, high BMI, high levels of serum albumin and phosphorus, low levels of serum bicarbonate, triglycerides and creatinine, use of ACEI/ARB were associated with hyperkalemia.

The detection of ß-amyloid plaques in an Alzheimer's disease rat model with DDNP-SPIO.

AIM: To detect the ß-amyloid plaques (Aß) in a rat model of Alzheimer's disease (AD) using superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles coated with 1,1-dicyano-2-[6-(dimethylamino)-naphthalene-2-yl] propene carboxyl derivative (DDNP-SPIO). MATERIALS AND METHODS: DDNP-SPIO was prepared in a previous trial. The binding affinity of DDNP-SPIO to Aß was tested using fluorescence spectrophotometry in vitro. In vivo, five AD rats and five non-AD rats were intravenously injected with DDNP-SPIO at a dose of 76 µmol Fe/kg. Coronal T2*-weighted images were collected at baseline and repeated at 10, 30, and 60 min post-injection. Enhancement features of the two groups were analysed. After imaging, brain specimens were resected for Congo red and Prussian blue staining to assess the binding of DDNP-SPIO to Aß deposits. RESULTS: In vitro experiments indicated that the DDNP-SPIO nanoparticles displayed high binding affinities towards Aß with a Kd value of 29.4 nmol/l. A significant decrease in SI was detected in the hippocampal area of AD rats after intravenous injection of the nanoparticles, but not in non-AD rats. The measurement of the percentage signal loss decreased to 52% in AD rats. In non-AD rats, only 10% signal loss was observed. There was a significant difference between the two groups (t = 4.533, p < 0.05). The signal decrease resulted from the binding of the DDNP-SPIO nanoparticles to the Aß plaques, which was identified with Congo red and Prussian blue staining. CONCLUSION: The DDNP-SPIO nanoparticles could potentially be used for visualizing Aß plaques, which may be helpful for diagnosing the early stages of AD and monitoring the effects of drug therapy.

Screening of feature genes of the renal cell carcinoma with DNA microarray.

AIM: To investigate the underlying molecular mechanisms of renal cell carcinoma (RCC) by using the microarray expression profiles of normal kidney and RCC tissue for early diagnosis and treatment of RCC. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The gene expression profile of GES781 was downloaded from Gene Expression Omnibus database, including including nine tissue samples of RCC tissues removed from nine patients and eight adjacent normal renal tissue samples. We identified the differentially expressed genes (DEGs) by Multtest package in R software. The screened DEGs were further analyzed by bioinformatics methods. Firstly, the comparison of the DEGs expression degree was performed by cluster analysis. Secondly, DAVID was used to perform functional analysis of up- and down- regulated genes and the protein-protein interaction (PPI) networks were constructed by prePPI. Finally, the pathways of genes in PPI networks were discovered by WebGestalt. RESULTS: Compared with the control, we screened 648 down-regulated and 681 up-regulated DEGs. And the down- and up-regulated DEGs with maximum expression degree were UMOD (uromodulin) and FABP7 (fatty acid binding protein 7), respectively. There was significant difference in the gene expression between the normal kidney and RCC tissue. The up-regulated DEGs in RCC tissue were significantly related to the immune responses and the down-regulated DEGs were significantly related to the oxidation reduction. The most significant pathway in the PPI network of UMOD was cytokine-cytokine receptor interaction. CONCLUSIONS: The screened DEGs have the potential to become candidate target molecules to monitor, diagnose and treat the RCC, and might be beneficial for the early diagnosis and medication control of RCC.

Feasibility of MR imaging in evaluating breast cancer lymphangiogenesis using Polyethylene glycol-GoldMag nanoparticles.

AIM: To investigate the feasibility of evaluating tumour lymphangiogenesis using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in vivo. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Water-soluble polyethylene glycol (PEG)-GoldMag nanoparticles were obtained by combining GoldMag with PEG. The PEG-GoldMag nanoparticles were bound to anti-podoplanin antibody (PodAb) to construct PEG-GoldMag-pod molecular probes targeting lymphatic endothelial cells (LECs). The characteristics of the PEG-GoldMag-pod nanoparticles were tested. Using these nanoparticles, tumour lymphangiogenesis was evaluated using MRI in vitro and in vivo. RESULTS: The average size of PEG-GoldMag nanoparticles was about 66.8 nm, and the nanoparticles were stably dispersed in the liquid phase for at least 15 days. After incubation for 24 h at different iron concentrations ranging from 5-45 µg/ml, the LECs were labelled with PEG-GoldMag-pod nanoparticles, in particular the breast cancer LECs. Dose-dependence was observed in the labelling efficiencies and MRI images of the labelled cells. In vitro, the labelling efficiencies and MRI images showed that the nanoparticles could detect podoplanin expression in LECs. In induced rat models of breast cancer, PEG-GoldMag-pod nanoparticles combined with lymphatic vessels were significantly detectable at MRI 60 min after nanoparticle administration, the signal intensity was negatively correlated with the lymphatic vessel density of breast cancer (r = -0.864, P = 0.000). CONCLUSIONS: The present study proves the feasibility of evaluating tumour lymphangiogenesis with MRI in vivo.