Jin‐Hyuk Kim

Periostin plays a crucial role in fibrosis, and acute kidney injury results in a high risk of progression to chronic kidney disease. Therefore, we hypothesized that periostin was involved in the progression of acute kidney injury to kidney fibrosis. Unilateral ischemia-reperfusion injury (UIRI) was induced in 7- to 8-wk-old male wild-type and periostin-null mice, and the animals were observed for 6 wk. In vitro, human kidney-2 cells and primary-cultured human tubular epithelial cells were incuba

BACKGROUND: Periostin is responsible for tissue regeneration, fibrosis, and wound healing via its interaction with integrin. Recently, the role of periostin has been shown to contribute to fibrosis in chronic kidney disease. We investigated the role of periostin and the effect of periostin blockade in renal fibrogenesis. METHODS: We investigated the function of periostin in vivo in wild-type and periostin-null mice (Postn-KO) in a unilateral ureteral obstruction (UUO) model. For the in vitro exp

BACKGROUND: Periostin is a matricellular protein and plays a vital role in tissue regeneration, fibrosis and wound healing. However, data about its significance in nephrology are limited. We investigated the correlation between urinary periostin excretion and its clinical significance including renal histologic findings and prognosis in IgA nephropathy (IgAN). METHODS: Of 399 patients from a glomerulonephritis cohort recruited between January 2009 and December 2014, 314 were enrolled. Serum and

Mildly elevated serum bilirubin levels were associated with better renal prognosis, and bilirubin treatment induced a beneficial effect on renal fibrosis. Therefore, bilirubin could be a potential therapeutic target to delay fibrosis-related kidney disease progression.

A centrifugal pump is the most common type of pump used in industrial areas. To design a higher-performance pump, design optimizationusing mechanical concepts is required. In this study, optimization of an impeller and a volute was carried out to improve the performanceof a centrifugal pump. The base impeller was designed using fluid machinery design theory and internal design databases, andits performance was evaluated through numerical analysis. Design optimization was then performed to improv

Hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) and its receptor, cMet, activate biological pathways necessary for repair and regeneration following kidney injury. Because HGF is a highly unstable molecule in its biologically active form, we asked whether a monoclonal antibody (Ab) that displays full agonist activity at the receptor could protect the kidney from fibrosis. We attempted to determine whether the cMet agonistic Ab might reduce fibrosis, the final common pathway for chronic kidney diseases (CKD). A m

Acute thoracic aortic dissection is a life-threatening disease, in which blood leaking from the damaged inner layer of the aorta causes dissection between the intimal and adventitial layers. The diagnosis of this disease is challenging. Chest x-rays are usually performed for initial screening or diagnosis, but the diagnostic accuracy of this method is not high. Recently, deep learning has been successfully applied in multiple medical image analysis tasks. In this paper, we attempt to increase th

BACKGROUND/AIMS: Patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) may manifest paraneoplastic syndromes such as hypercholesterolemia, hypoglycemia, hypercalcemia and erythrocytosis. This study was aimed at evaluating the incidence and clinical significance of paraneoplastic syndromes in Korean HCC patients. METHODS: The medical records of 165 HCC patients who were diagnosed and died in the Kyung Hee University Hospital, were reviewed retrospectively. The following variables were analyzed: age, gende

BACKGROUND: Soluble forms of tumor necrosis factor receptors (sTNFRs) are emerging target molecules of inflammatory disease. However, their role in vascular biology is not well known. This study was performed to investigate the association between serum concentrations of sTNFRs and arterial stiffness. METHODS: A total of 117 consecutive patients with suspected coronary artery disease (CAD) (63.6 ± 11.0 years; men, 65%) who were referred for invasive coronary angiography (ICA) were prospectively

Whole bee venom (WBV)-induced pain model has been reported to be very useful for the study of pain. However, the major constituent responsible for the production of pain by WBV is not apparent. Intraplantar injection of WBV and melittin dramatically reduced mechanical threshold, and increased flinchings and paw thickness. In behavioral experiments, capsaicin pretreatment almost completely prevented WBV- and melittin-induced reduction of mechanical threshold and flinchings. Intraplantar injection

BACKGROUND: Soluble epoxide hydrolase (sEH) expressed by endothelial cells catalyzes the metabolism of epoxyeicosatrienoic acids (EETs), which are vasoactive agents. METHODS: We used a unilateral ureteral obstruction mouse model of kidney fibrosis to determine whether inhibition of sEH activity reduces fibrosis, the final common pathway for chronic kidney disease. RESULTS: model of endothelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EndMT) using human vascular endothelial cells (HUVECs), AUDA prevented the m

Focal segmental glomerulosclerosis (FSGS) and minimal change disease (MCD) have similar initial histological findings; however, their prognoses are distinct. Therefore, it is of great importance to discriminate FSGS from MCD in the early phase of disease and predict clinical prognosis. A discovery set of 184 urine samples (61 healthy control, 80 MCD, and 43 FSGS) and a validation set of 61 urine samples (12 healthy control, 26 MCD, and 23 FSGS) were collected at the time of kidney biopsy. Metabo

Hepatocyte growth factor and its receptor cMet activate biological pathways necessary for repair and regeneration following kidney injury. Here, we evaluated the clinical role of urinary cMet as a prognostic biomarker in diabetic nephropathy (DN). A total of 218 patients with DN were enrolled in this study. We examined the association of urine cMet levels and long-term outcomes in patients with DN. The levels of urinary cMet were higher in patients with decreased renal function than in patients

Periostin plays a crucial role in fibrosis, which is involved in kidney aging. A few studies have shown that lipid metabolism is involved in kidney aging. We investigated the role of periostin in lipid metabolism during kidney aging. Renal function, fibrosis, and inflammatory markers were studied using urine, blood, and tissue samples from wild-type (WT) C57BL/6 mice and <i>Postn-null</i> mice of 2 and 24 months of age. Lipids were quantitatively profiled using liquid chromatography-tandem mass