Following specific podocyte injury captopril protects against progressive long term renal damage

Background: Angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitors (ACEi) reduce proteinuria and preserve kidney function in proteinuric renal diseases. Their nephroprotective effect exceeds that attributable to lowering of blood pressure alone. This study examines the potential of ACEi to protect from progression of injury after a highly specific injury to podocytes in a mouse model. Methods: We created transgenic (Podo-DTR) mice in which graded specific podocyte injury could be induced by a single injection of diphtheria toxin. Transgenic and wild-type mice were given the ACEi captopril in drinking water, or water alone, commencing 24h after toxin injection. Kidneys were examined histologically at 8 weeks and injury assessed by observers blinded to experimental group. Results: After toxin injection, Podo-DTR mice developed acute proteinuria, and at higher doses transient renal impairment, which subsided within 3 weeks to be followed by a slow glomerular scarring process. Captopril treatment in Podo-DTR line 57 after toxin injection at 5ng/g body weight reduced proteinuria and ameliorated glomerular scarring, matrix accumulation and glomerulosclerosis almost to baseline (toxin: 17%; toxin + ACEi 10%, p<0.04; control 7% glomerular scarring). Podocyte counts were reduced after toxin treatment and showed no recovery irrespective of captopril treatment (7.1 and 7.3 podocytes per glomerular cross section in water and captopril-treated animals compared with 8.2 of wild-type controls, p<0.05). Conclusions: Observations in Podo-DTR mice support the hypothesis that continuing podocyte dysfunction is a key abnormality in proteinuric disease. Our model is ideal for studying strategies to protect the kidney from progressive injury following podocyte depletion. Demonstrable protective effects from captopril occur, despite indiscernible preservation or restoration of podocyte counts, at least after this degree of relatively mild injury

Controlled synthesis of phase-pure zeolitic imidazolate framework Co-ZIF-9

The synthesis of phase-pure Co-ZIF-9, an important cobalt-based zeolitic imidazolate framework, could be achieved by modification of the reported synthesis procedure through pH adjustment of the starting synthesis mixture. The phase-pure Co-ZIF-9 material obtained has been characterized by a combination of UV/Vis, FTIR, and Raman spectroscopy as well as by thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and XRD and possesses a lower overall crystallinity. This can be explained by the addition of the base for the pH adjustment method. On the basis of these findings, a synthesis pathway for the formation of the secondary phase, cobalt formate, is proposed along with its relationship to the flexibility of the coordination environment of cobalt ions. The crystal structures of both phases have been determined by single-crystal X-ray crystallography, and the resolved structures also reflect the coordination flexibility of the framework cobalt ions

Anomalous scattering in structural chemistry and biology

The uses of X-ray anomalous scattering in crystal structure analysis have undergone a major expansion due to the refinement and ease of availability of the necessary X-ray instrumentation and methods. The structural chemistry and biology fields span a similar suite of technical needs but with widely differing molecular systems. The innate synergies between the two research fields brought two of the authors (JRH and VK) together at an Erice Summer School on Synchrotron Radiation in Crystallography in 1985 and took them into a collaboration spanning already 20 years. The authors’ wide perspectives are therefore, if not unique, perhaps rather rare. Thus the breadth of coverage of this review is unusual. However, there are two excellent books on anomalous scattering and its uses that have been published covering the periods up to 1975 and 1994 [S. Ramaseshan, S.C. Abrahams (Eds). Anomalous Scattering, Munksgaard, Copenhagen (1975); G. Materlik, C.J. Sparks, K. Fischer (Eds). Resonant Anomalous X-ray Scattering: Theory and Applications, North Holland, Amsterdam (1994)]. As the number of examples of applications in structural biology are now so many it has only been possible to select some illustrative examples but with surveys of trends. In addition though, the develop- ment of the methodologies is described in more detail. The structural chemistry applications in, for example, microporous materials, superconductors and magnetic materials is expanding fast but still at a stage where we could attempt to provide a detailed coverage of results, which we have done. Anomalous scattering results on locating metal atoms can also be compared with other technique results and so sections on X-ray Absorption Spectroscopy (XAS), Diffraction Anomalous Fine Structure (DAFS), neutron diffraction and Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) applications are described where they relate to metal atom location and local structure. Finally anomalous scattering has also been very useful to help develop the modern synchrotron Laue method for quantitative crystal structure analysis, which is also briefly described