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Nodular lesions and mesangiolysis in diabetic nephropathy

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Abstract

Diabetic nephropathy is a leading cause of end-stage renal failure all over the world. Advanced human diabetic nephropathy is characterized by the presence of specific lesions including nodular lesions, doughnut lesions, and exudative lesions. Thus far, animal models precisely mimicking advanced human diabetic nephropathy, especially nodular lesions, remain to be fully established. Animal models with spontaneous diabetic kidney diseases or with inducible kidney lesions may be useful for investigating the pathogenesis of diabetic nephropathy. Based on pathological features, we previously reported that diabetic glomerular nodular-like lesions were formed during the reconstruction process of mesangiolysis. Recently, we established nodular-like lesions resembling those seen in advanced human diabetic nephropathy through vascular endothelial injury and mesangiolysis by administration of monocrotaline. Here, in this review, we discuss diabetic nodular lesions and its animal models resembling human diabetic kidney lesions, with our hypothesis that endothelial cell injury and mesangiolysis might be required for nodular lesions.

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Acknowledgments

This study was supported in part by a Grant-in-Aid for Diabetic Nephropathy Research, and for Diabetic Nephropathy and Nephrosclerosis Research from the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare of Japan. TW is a recipient of a Grant-in-Aid from the Ministry of Education, Science, Sports and Culture in Japan.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Nephrology, Kanazawa University Hospital, 13-1 Takara-machi, Kanazawa, 920-8641, Japan

    Takashi Wada, Miho Shimizu, Yasunori Iwata & Kengo Furuichi

  2. Division of Blood Purification, Kanazawa University Hospital, Kanazawa, Japan

    Kengo Furuichi

  3. Department of Laboratory Medicine, Kanazawa University, Kanazawa, Japan

    Takashi Wada, Yasunori Iwata & Yoshio Sakai

  4. Department of Disease Control and Homeostasis, Kanazawa University, Kanazawa, Japan

    Miho Shimizu, Shuichi Kaneko & Kengo Furuichi

  5. Division of Nephrology, Kanazawa Medical University, Uchinada, Japan

    Hitoshi Yokoyama

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  1. Takashi Wada
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Correspondence to Takashi Wada.

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Wada, T., Shimizu, M., Yokoyama, H. et al. Nodular lesions and mesangiolysis in diabetic nephropathy. Clin Exp Nephrol 17, 3–9 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10157-012-0711-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10157-012-0711-6

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