Urinary Claudin-1 Level as a Marker of Podocyte Injury in Patients with Proteinuria

Background The biology of claudins is a rapidly evolving field, and many intriguing questions remain unanswered. Although it had been assumed that the reason there are ≥24 isoforms of claudin is that each one has distinct permeability properties. The nephron displays a wide spectrum of claudins, whose distribution varies in each tubular segment. In diabetic nephropathy and glomerulonephritis the gene expression of claudin-1, is markedly upregulated in the podocyte, accompanied by a tighter filtration slit diaphragm (cell-cell junction made by the glomerular podocytes) and the appearance of TJ-like structures between the foot processes causing further podocytes injury and proteinuria. Aim of the work to assess urinary claudin -1 level as a marker of podocyte injury in patients with proteinuria. Patients and Methods it is a case control study which was conducted upon 90 subjects who were divided into three groups: group I included 30 patients with type II DM, group II included 30 patients with glomerulonephritis and group III had 30 healthy subjects as controls. Urinary claudin-1 level was measured by Enzyme linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA) Results In this study, we found that urinary claudin-1 level was significantly higher in diabetics group and GN group than in control group. In comparison between GN group and diabetic group, we found that urinary claudin-1 level was higher in GN group than in diabetics group but with no statistically significant difference between the two groups. Conclusion urinary claudin-1 level was significantly higher in diabetics and GN group and has positive correlation with uACR. So it can be used as marker of podocytes injury and proteinuria

Electrochemical Degradation of Phenol by the Nanographite and Foam-Ni Composite Cathode

The degradation of phenol was demonstrate with a novel two-layer type cathode (TTC). For the fabrication of TTC, chitosan was firstly deposited on foam nickel, then one piece of the resulting foam-Ni film and one piece of nanographite(Nano-G) composite film were fasten to obtain the two-layer type nano-G︱foam-Ni cathode. The electrolysis phenol was conducted by self-made cathode and the Ti/IrO2/RuO2 anode in the diaphragm cell. The results showed that in the diaphragm electrolysis system with the aeration conditions, the degradation rate of phenol reached 97.15% under 120min’s electrolysis, when current density was 39 mA/cm2, initial pH value was 12 and electrolyte concentration was 0.1 mol/L. This two-layer type cathode could be reused without catalytic activity decrease, suggesting its potential application in the wastewater treatment.