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The aim of this review is to provide a review of the immune system in fish, including the ontogeny, mechanisms of unspecific and acquired immunity and the action of some immunomodulators. Fish rely on their innate immune system for an extended period of time, beginning at the early stages of embryogenesis. The components of the innate immune response are divided into physical, cellular and humoral factors and include humoral and cellular receptor molecules that are soluble in plasma and other body fluids. The lymphoid organs found in fish include the thymus, spleen and kidney. Immunoglobulins are the principal components of the immune response against pathogenic organisms. Immunomodulatory products, including nucleotides, glucans and probiotics, are increasingly used in aquaculture production. The use of these products reduces the need for therapeutic treatments, enhances the effects of vaccines and, in turn, improves the indicators of production.

Endogenous advanced glycation endproducts (AGEs) include chemically crosslinking species (glycotoxins) that contribute to the vascular and renal complications of diabetes mellitus (DM). Renal excretion of the catabolic products of endogenous AGEs is impaired in patients with diabetic or nondiabetic kidney disease (KD). The aim of this study was to examine the oral absorption and renal clearance kinetics of food AGEs in DM with KD and whether circulating diet-derived AGEs contain active glycotoxins. Thirty-eight diabetics (DM) with or without KD and five healthy subjects (NL) received a single meal of egg white (56 g protein), cooked with (AGE-diet) or without fructose (100 g) (CL-diet). Serum and urine samples, collected for 48 hr, were monitored for AGE immunoreactivity by ELISA and for AGE-specific crosslinking reactivity, based on complex formation with 125-I-labeled fibronectin. The AGE-diet, but not the CL-diet, produced distinct elevations in serum AGE levels in direct proportion to amount ingested (r = 0.8, P 0.05): the area under the curve for serum (approximately 10% of ingested AGE) correlated directly with severity of KD; renal excretion of dietary AGE, although normally incomplete (only approximately 30% of amount absorbed), in DM it correlated inversely with degree of albuminuria, and directly with creatinine clearance (r

Cadmium, lead, mercury, and aluminum are toxic metals that may interact metabolically with nutritionally essential metals. Iron deficiency increases absorption of cadmium, lead, and aluminum. Lead interacts with calcium in the nervous system to impair cognitive development. Cadmium and aluminum interact with calcium in the skeletal system to produce osteodystrophies. Lead replaces zinc on heme enzymes and cadmium replaces zinc on metallothionein. Selenium protects from mercury and methylmercury toxicity. Aluminum interacts with calcium in bone and kidneys, resulting in aluminum osteodystrophy. Calcium deficiency along with low dietary magnesium may contribute to aluminum-induced degenerative nervous disease

Acute toxicity tests were carried out in order to assess the effect of cypermethrin on rainbow trout. Results of haematological, biochemical and histopathological tissue examinations of control and experimental groups exposed to Alimetrine 10 EM pesticide preparation (active substance 100 g/L of cypermethrin) were compared. An acute semistatical toxicity test lasting 96 h was performed on rainbow trout juveniles. The 96hLC50 value of Alimethrine 10 EM was 31.4 microg/L. In comparison with control animals, the experimental group showed significantly higher values of plasma ammonia, aspartate aminotransferase, lactate dehydrogenase, creatine kinase, and lactate, and significantly lower values of alkaline phosphatase. A significant decrease in counts of developmental forms of myeloid sequence and segmented neutrophile granulocytes was found in the experimental group. Teleangioectasiae of secondary gill lamellae and degeneration of hepatocytes were observed. No histopathological changes were demonstrated in skin, spleen, cranial and caudal kidney tissues. The cypermethrine-based Alimethrinee 10 EM pesticide preparation was classified as a substance strongly toxic for fish.

Ten Southern Hemisphere cephalopod species from six families collected from six localities in western, southern and eastern Australia were examined for dicyemid parasites. A total of 11 dicyemid species were recorded, with three cephalopod species uninfected, four infected by one dicyemid species and three infected by multiple dicyemid species. Dicyemid species prevalence ranged from 24-100%, with observed infection patterns explored due to host size, host life history properties, host geographical collection locality and inter-parasite species competition for attachment sites, space and nutrients. Left and right renal appendages were treated as separate entities and four different patterns of infection by asexual and sexual dicyemid stages were observed. The detection within a single host individual of asexual dicyemid stages in one renal appendage and sexual dicyemid stages in the other renal appendage supported the notion that developmental cues mediating stage transition are parasite-controlled, and also occurs independently and in isolation within each renal appendage. Our study exploring dicyemid parasite fauna composition in relation to cephalopod host biology and ecology therefore represents a thorough, broad-scale taxonomic analysis that allows for a greater understanding of dicyemid infection patterns.

Background. The n-3 fatty acids in fish oil affect eicosanoid and cytokine production and therefore have the potential to alter renal hemodynamics and inflammation. The effects of fish oil could prevent immunologic renal injury in patients with IgA nephropathy. Methods. In a multicenter, placebo-controlled, randomized trial we tested the efficacy of fish oil in patients with IgA nephropathy who had persistent proteinuria. The daily dose of fish oil was 12 g; the placebo was a similar dose of olive oil. Serum creatinine concentrations, elevated in 68 percent of the patients at base line, and creatinine clearance were measured for two years. The primary end point was an increase of 50 percent or more in the serum creatinine concentration at the end of the study. Results. Fifty-five patients were assigned to receive fish oil, and 51 to receive placebo. According to Kaplan-Meier estimation, 3 patients (6 percent) in the fish-oil group and 14 (33 percent) in the placebo group had increases of 50 percent or more in their serum creatinine concentrations during treatment (P = 0.002). The annual median changes in the serum creatinine concentrations were 0.03 mg per deciliter (2.7 micromoles per liter) in the fish-oil group and 0.14 mg per deciliter (12.4 micromoles per liter) in the placebo group. Proteinuria was slightly reduced and hypertension was controlled to a comparable degree in both groups. The cumulative percentage of patients who died or had end-stage renal disease was 40 percent in the placebo group after four years and 10 percent in the fish-oil group (P 0.006). No patient discontinued fish-oil treatment because of adverse effects. Conclusions. In patients with IgA nephropathy, treatment with fish oil for two years retards the rate at which renal function is lost

Cadmium, lead, and mercury concentrations were determined in roe deer and wild boar tissues (muscle, liver, kidney) of three different age groups from lowland Croatia. Cd concentrations in the examined tissues increased with age in both species, being the highest in the kidney, and higher in roe deer as compared to wild boar. Pb concentration was higher in younger animals in comparison with both older groups. Contrary to the expectations, roe deer tissues revealed mostly higher Pb concentrations than those of wild boar. Hg concentration in the tissues of the animals examined was relatively low and no correlation with age was found. However, Hg concentration was higher in kidneys than in livers and in wild boar than in roe deer. Muscle samples from roe deer and wild boar were edible as Cd and Pb concentrations did not exceed the values prescribed by the official regulations. However, Cd concentrations in liver exceeded the prescribed values in one fifth of all samples while Pb concentrations were lower than the allowed concentrations. Most kidney samples from both animal species contained Cd exceeding the recommended concentrations, while Pb concentrations in all samples did not exceed the official value regulation. Hg concentrations are no longer (since 2008) a matter of legislation.

A full-length cDNA for the rat kidney mitochondrial cytochrome P450 mixed function oxidase, 25-hydroxyvitamin D3-1 alpha-hydroxylase (P4501alpha), was cloned from a vitamin D-deficient rat kidney cDNA library and subcloned into the mammalian expression vector pcDNA 3.1(+). When P4501alpha cDNA was transfected into COS-7 transformed monkey kidney cells, they expressed 25-hydroxyvitamin D3-1alpha-hydroxylase activity. The sequence analysis showed that P4501alpha was of 2,469 bp long and contained an ORF encoding 501 amino acids. The deduced amino acid sequence showed a 53% similarity and 44% identity to the vitamin D3-25-hydroxylase (CYP27), whereas it has 42.6% similarity and 34% identity with the 25-hydroxyvitamin D3-24-hydroxylase (CYP24). Thus, it composes a new subfamily of the CYP27 family. Further, it is more closely related to the CYP27 than to the CYP24. The expression of P4501alpha mRNA was greatly increased in the kidney of vitamin D-deficient rats. In rats with the enhanced renal production of 1alpha,25-dihydroxyvitamin D3 (rats fed a low Ca diet), P4501alpha mRNA was greatly increased in the renal proximal convoluted tubules

To evaluate renal functions in camel, the study on profiles like Serum Creatinine (SC), Serum urea nitrogen (SUN), SUN/SC ratio was undertaken in institutes herd of camels (n=250) (Camelus dromedarius) of all age groups, both sexes and three breeds and in addition Glomerular Filtration rate (GFR) of 18 male camels of 3 breeds (n=6 each) with 6 individual replicates (Total 108 observations) were determined. The values of SC and SUN/SC ratio differ significantly (P 0.05) between breeds, while those of SUN did not differ (P0.05). SC was significantly higher in male (P0.05), while SUN and SUN/SC ratio was significantly higher (P0.05) in females. The values of SC and SUN/SC ratio did not differed significantly (P0.05) in different age groups, while SUN differed significantly (P0.05) between different age groups. Daily Urine Output (UO) and GFR differed significantly (P0.05) between Bikaneri and Kachchi breeds, while the difference was statistically non-significant (P0.05) between Bikaneri and Jaisalmeri and Bikaneri and Kachchi breeds. UO and GFR had highly significant (P0.01) positive correlation ship(r

Kidney cortex is a main target for circulating vitamin B12 (cobalamin) in complex with transcobalamin (TC). Ligand blotting of rabbit kidney cortex with rabbit 125I-TC-B12 and human TC-57Co-B12 revealed an exclusive binding to megalin, a 600-kDa endocytic receptor present in renal proximal tubule epithelium and other absorptive epithelia. The binding was Ca2+ dependent and inhibited by receptor-associated protein (RAP). Surface plasmon resonance analysis demonstrated a high-affinity interaction between purified rabbit megalin and rabbit TC-B12 but no measurable affinity of the vitamin complex for the homologous alpha2-macroglobulin receptor (alpha2MR)/low density lipoprotein receptor related protein (LRP). I25I-TC-B12 was efficiently endocytosed in a RAP-inhibitable manner in megalin-expressing rat yolk sac carcinoma cells and in vivo microperfused rat proximal tubules. The radioactivity in the tubules localized to the endocytic compartments and a similar apical distribution in the proximal tubules was demonstrated after intravenous injection of 125I-TC-B12. The TC-B12 binding sites in the proximal tubule epithelium colocalized with megalin as shown by ligand binding to cryosections of rat kidney cortex, and the binding was inhibited by anti-megalin polyclonal antibody, EDTA, and RAP. These data show a novel nutritional dimension of megalin as a receptor involved in the cellular uptake of vitamin B12. The expression of megalin in absorptive epithelia in the kidney and other tissues including yolk sac and placenta suggests a role of the receptor in vitamin B12 homeostasis and fetal vitamin B12 supply