Wei Shi

Guangdong Academy of Medical Sciences and General Hospital · nephrology dept

Podocyte injury is a common hallmark of chronic kidney disease (CKD). The podocin-nephrin complex localized in lipid rafts of podocyte is vital to reduce podocyte injury and proteinuria, however, the mechanism underlying its localization remains unclear. This study uncovers an important role of Flot2 in stabilizing the podocin-nephrin complex local...

Severe acute respiratory disease coronavirus 2 is currently causing the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, placing extreme strain on the global health system. Vaccination is the main measure for preventing the COVID-19 epidemic, especially for high-risk groups including patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD). However, CKD patients re...

Purpose Hemodialysis (HD)-induced myocardial ischemia may lead to left ventricular (LV) dysfunction after normal perfusion returns. This study aimed to assess the short-term influence of predilution hemodiafiltration (HDF) and high-flux hemodialysis (HD) on intradialytic LV systolic function, and hematologic and biochemical risk factors. Methods T...

Equations to estimate glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) are useful for monitoring tje renal status of benign hypertensive nephrosclerosis (BHN). This study aimed to compare the applicability of 6 equations (Cockcroft-Gault [CG] adjusted for body surface area, original modification of diet in renal disease [MDRD], American abbreviated MDRD, Chinese...

Background Diabetic kidney diseases (DKD) were the leading cause of End-stage renal diseases worldwide. Albuminuria was a target for treatment in DKD and decreasing albuminuria was particularly important for improving its prognosis. However, there is still a lack of specific treatment for DKD. Methods We conducted a prospective, crossover, open-la...

Podocyte injury is sufficient to cause glomerulosclerosis and proteinuria, eventually leading to kidney failure. Previous studies found that podocytes and neurons had similar biological characteristics. Growth-associated protein-43 (GAP-43) is a growth cone protein in neurons, and a marker of axonal and synaptic growth. However, it is not known whe...

Background: Heart failure (HF) is one of the main comorbidities in patients receiving maintenance hemodialysis (HD). Sacubitril/valsartan (SAC/VAL) is widely used in HF patients with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF) or HF mid-range ejection fraction (HFmrEF). However, the pharmacokinetic (PK) and pharmacodynamic properties of SAC/VAL in HD patien...

Background Treatments with glucocorticoids or immunosuppressants in IgA nephropathy remain controversial, especially in IgA nephropathy patients with renal insufficiency and small quantities of proteinuria. So far, no randomized controlled study has investigated whether cyclophosphamide has a protective effect on IgA nephropathy independent of gluc...

Anemia is a common complication of chronic kidney disease (CKD). Recombinant human erythropoietin (rHu-EPO) is used extensively in patients with CKD. However, anti-erythropoietin (anti-EPO) antibody has been reported during rHu-EPO treatment, which causes pure red cell aplasia (PRCA). We presented a case of 75-year-old man, who underwent hemodialys...

Hypertension is one of the most common complications of chronic kidney disease (CKD). Some research has indicated that changes in large artery function especially caused by thromboxane A2 (TXA2) may be a novel factor acting to induce hypertension in CKD. We studied the 5/6 nephrectomy rat model and measured serum levels of creatinine (Cr), calcium...

Receptor activator of NF-κB (RANK) expression is increased in podocytes of patients with diabetic nephropathy. However, the relevance of RANK to diabetic nephropathy pathobiology remains unclear. Here, to evaluate the role of podocyte RANK in the development of diabetic nephropathy, we generated a mouse model of podocyte-specific RANK depletion (RA...

Introduction Job burnout is an occupational psychological syndrome with a high prevalence among nurses in China. Hemodialysis (HD) nursing work has the characteristics of high intensity, high technical content, and high risk. The aims of this study were to investigate the prevalence and level of job burnout among HD nurses in China and explore the...

Objective To develop a clinical model for predicting postoperative acute kidney injury (AKI) in patients of advanced age undergoing cardiac surgery. Methods A total of 848 patients (aged ≥ 60 years) undergoing cardiac surgery were consecutively enrolled. Among them, 597 were randomly selected for the development set and the remaining 251 for the v...

Background Although aging increases susceptibility to acute kidney injury (AKI), whether the AKI risk and the association between AKI and adverse outcomes are age-dependent remain unclear in older adults. The current study aimed to identify whether AKI risk was age-dependent in older adults and to investigate whether the association between AKI and...

BACKGROUND Job burnout is an occupational psychological syndrome with a high prevalence among nurses in China. Hemodialysis (HD) nursing work has the characteristics of high intensity, high technical content, and high risk. However, few studies have investigated the nationwide prevalence of burnout among HD nurses in China. OBJECTIVE The main aims...

Histone deacetylase 6 (HDAC6) is the specific subtype of HDACs which preferentially located in the cytoplasm, and is crucial in insulin signalling. However, the role of HDAC6 in type 2 diabetic nephropathy (DN) remains undefined. In current study, we observed that HDAC6 was markedly activated in the kidneys of type 2 diabetic patients and db/db mic...

Background: Idiopathic membranous nephropathy (IMN) is frequently coexisted with diabetes mellitus (DM). Few researches investigate clinical outcomes in IMN patients coexisting diabetes mellitus (DM), including remission rates, renal survival and complications. Concurrent DM also pose therapeutic challenges to IMN patients due to the influence of...

Podocyte injury and loss contribute to proteinuria, glomerulosclerosis and eventually kidney failure. Recent studies have demonstrated that the loss of Kruppel-like factor 15 (KLF15) in podocytes increases the susceptibility to injury; however, the mechanism underlying the protective effects on podocyte injury remains incompletely understood. Herei...

Background Metabolic syndrome (MS) and diabetes mellitus (DM) are risk factors for cardiovascular diseases in general population. However, there was a paucity of studies investigating their impact in primary glomerular diseases (PGD). Hypothesis MS and concomitant DM are associated with higher risk of cardiovascular comorbidity in PGD. Methods In...

BACKGROUND Job burnout is an occupational illness with high prevalence among nurses in China. The job burnout status among hemodialysis nurses should be given more attention because of they handle sophisticated machinery, and there is a high risk of infection in hemodialysis nursing. OBJECTIVE The level and influencing factors of job burnout among...

Background/aims: Uremic tumoral calcinosis (UTC) is a rare disease with metastatic tissue calcification in maintenance hemodialysis (HD) patients. However, limited data are available on the treatment of UTC in HD patients. This article mainly discusses the diagnostic findings and efficacy of treatment on HD patients with UTC. Methods: A retrospe...

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a highly infective disease caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 virus (SARS-CoV-2). Previous studies on COVID-19 pneumonia outbreak were based on information from the general population. Limited data are available for hemodialysis patients with COVID-19 pneumonia. This report describes...

Background: Phospholipase A2 receptor (PLA2R) is a target antigen for idiopathic membranous nephropathy (IMN). However, the association between renal PLA2R antigen and disease prognosis had not been fully investigated. In addition, there was a paucity of studies investigating the difference of therapeutic effects between Cyclophosphamide and Cyclo...

Background Idiopathic membranous nephropathy (IMN) is frequently coexisted with diabetes mellitus (DM). We performed this study to investigate the impact of coexisting DM on clinical outcomes in patients with IMN. Methods 206 adult hospitalized patients diagnosed with biopsy-proven IMN were retrospectively studied, including 42 patients coexisted w...

Background Idiopathic membranous nephropathy (IMN) is frequently coexisted with diabetes mellitus (DM). Few researches investigate clinical outcomes in IMN patients coexisting diabetes mellitus (DM), including remission rates, renal survival and complications. Concurrent DM also pose therapeutic challenges to IMN patients due to the influence of gl...

Background: Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is a common comorbidity of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Although high hemoglobin (Hb) is detrimental to CKD patients, its relationship with poor outcomes in the COPD population has not been reported. This study aimed to investigate the relationship between high Hb and in-hospital mortality...

Hyperglycemia promotes podocyte apoptosis and contributes to the pathogenesis of diabetic nephropathy (DN). However, the mechanisms of hyperglycemia‑induced podocyte apoptosis remain unknown. Recent studies have implicated Src‑associated substrate during mitosis of 68 kDa (Sam68) in various cellular processes including RNA metabolism, apoptosis, si...

Background/aims: Acute kidney injury (AKI) is a serious complication of sepsis and has a high morbidity and mortality rate. Caspase-11 induces pyroptosis, a form of programmed cell death that plays a critical role in endotoxic shock, but its role in tubular epithelial cell death and whether it contributes to sepsis-associated AKI remains unknown....

Introduction: Increased glypican-5 expression in podocytes induces podocyte injury. Glypican-5 is shed into the urine, but its value in predicting progression of diabetic nephropathy (DN) has not been investigated. Methods: Glypican-5 was determined in spot urine from 20 type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) patients, and 37 type 2 DN patients, and 20...

Objectives To evaluate the safety of low‐volume tidal peritoneal dialysis (TPD) and intermittent peritoneal dialysis (IPD) in end‐stage renal disease (ESRD) patients initiating automated peritoneal dialysis (APD) after an acute catheter insertion. Design Clinical outcomes of patients who received either TPD or IPD using an APD system were compared...

Podocyte depletion is a central pathological mechanism of diabetic nephropathy (DN). Hyperglycemia induced podocyte apoptosis, resulting in podocyte depletion. However, the crucial mechanism of hyperglycemia-induced podocyte apoptosis remains poorly understood. In this study, we evaluated the expression of septin 7, a GTP-binding protein, in glomer...

Objective: To determine whether hyperglycemia activates NFAT2 in cultured podocytes to cause podocyte apoptosis and explore the role of NFAT2 in high glucose-induced podocyte apoptosis. Methods: Immortalized mouse podocytes were cultured in the presence of normal (5.3 mmol/L) or high glucose (10, 20, 30, and 40 mmol/L) or pretreated with 11R-viv...

Autophagy is important for maintaining normal physiological functions and podocyte cell homeostasis. Amino acid signaling is an important upstream signaling pathway for autophagy regulation. However, the function and the associated mechanism of amino acid signaling in podocyte autophagy is unclear. The present study used normal culture medium and a...

Background/aims: Podocyte injury and loss contribute to proteinuria, glomerulosclerosis and eventually kidney failure. Receptor activator of NF-κB (RANK) belongs to the TNF receptor superfamily, which plays a key role in the pathogenesis of podocyte injury. However, the mechanism underlying the effect of RANK in podocyte injury remains unclear. He...

Figure S1. Role of AGEs on LC3II expression. (A) Cultured podocytes were treated with BSA or AGE‐BSA (AGE) for the indicated time. Western blotting indicated that AGE inhibited LC3II expression at 72 h (mean ± SEM, n = 3) One way ANOVA, followed by post hoc Student–Newman–Keuls test. *P < 0.05 versus control. Figure S2. AGEs block autophagosome fo...

Table S1. Clinical characteristics in control subjects and patients with diabetic nephropathy

Table S2. SiRNA sequences

Table S3. Antibody information

Appendix S1. Supplementary materials and methods

Table S4. Primers used for ChIP assays

Table S5. Primers used for RT‐qPCR

Background/aims: Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is an important cause of morbidity and mortality in hemodialysis patients. Vascular calcification is thought to play an important role in causing CVD. Soluble urokinase plasminogen activator receptor (suPAR) is a biomarker strongly predictive of cardiovascular outcomes in the pathogenesis of diabetic p...

Insufficient autophagy in podocytes is related to podocyte injury in diabetic nephropathy (DN). Advanced glycation end‐products (AGEs) are major factors of podocyte injury in DN. However, the role and mechanism of AGEs on autophagic dysfunction remains unknown. We investigated autophagic flux in AGEs‐stimulated cultured podocytes using multiple ass...

Aim Phosphatase and tensin homolog deleted on chromosome 10 (PTEN) has been proved to be downregulated in podocytes challenged with high glucose (HG), and knockout of PTEN in podocytes aggravated the progression of diabetic kidney disease (DKD). However, whether podocyte-specific knockin of PTEN protects the kidney against hyperglycemia in vivo rem...

Podocyte injury and loss contribute to proteinuria, glomerulosclerosis, and eventually kidney failure. Activating transcription factor 3 (ATF3) is a stress inducible transcription factor that is transiently expressed following stimulation. However, we show for the first time an induction of ATF3 in podocytes from patients with chronic kidney diseas...

The aim of the present study was to investigate the protective effect of necrostatin‑1 (Nec‑1) in sepsis‑associated acute kidney injury (SA‑AKI). An SA‑AKI mouse model was established through an intraperitoneal injection of lipopolysaccharide (LPS), and Nec‑1 was administered to the mice prior to the establishment of SA‑AKI. Renal function and hist...

Background: Red blood cell distribution width (RDW) is a cardiovascular biomarker. We evaluated the association between RDW and cerebral stroke risk in hemodialysis patients. Methods: A cohort of 442 adult patients on hemodialysis was studied. Strokes were defined according to ICD-10 diagnosis codes. Routine complete blood counts, evaluated every 3...

Previous studies have indicated that glomerular podocyte injury serves a crucial role in proteinuria during the process of chronic kidney disease. The slit diaphragm of podocytes forms the final barrier to proteinuria. Dendrin, a constituent of the slit diaphragm protein complex, has been observed to relocate from the slit diaphragm to the nuclei i...

We present the case of a 42-year-old female patient who attempted suicide by taking approximately 100 tablets of metformin (500 mg). Laboratory tests revealed severe lactic acidosis with lactate levels of 24 mmol/L and pH of 7.09. The patient was treated with high-volume continuous venovenous hemodiafiltration (CVVH) and resin-sorbent hemoperfusion...

The aim of the present study was to investigate the protective effect of the NADPH oxidase inhibitor, diphenyleneiodonium (DPI) against necroptosis in renal tubular epithelial cells. A necroptosis model of HK-2 cells was established using tumor necrosis factor-α, benzyloxycarbonyl-Val-Ala-Asp-fluoromethylketone and antimycin A (collectively termed...

Apoptosis and necroptosis occur in renal tubular epithelial cell (RTEC) death in acute kidney injury (AKI), and may be regulated by several methods. The present study identified a protective effect of necrostatin‑1 (Nec‑1) on RTECs via a flow-control-like effect. The results established a hypoxic‑ischemic injury model of rat NRK‑52E RTECs using tum...

Hyperglycaemia promotes podocyte apoptosis and plays a key role in the pathogenesis of diabetic nephropathy. However, the mechanism that mediates hyperglycaemia-induced podocyte apoptosis is still remains unknown. Recent studies showed that transcription factor Sp1 has been implicated in glucose-mediated expression of genes involved in diabetic nep...

The contribution of DNA methylation to diabetic nephropathy, especially the effect on podocyte integrity, is not clarified. Here we found that albuminuria in a db/db mouse model was markedly attenuated after treatment with a DNA methylation inhibitor. This was accompanied by alleviation of glomerular hypertrophy, mesangial matrix expansion, and pod...

Indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase (IDO) has emerged as a pivotal enzyme for mediating immune tolerance. Because IDO metabolizes tryptophan into kynurenine, the plasma kynurenine/tryptophan (Kyn/Trp) ratio has been widely used as a marker of systemic IDO. Here, we evaluated the clinical value of using the plasma Kyn/Trp ratio to estimate cell-mediated imm...

CuO-doped (1−x)Ba(Zr0.05Ti0.95)O3-x(Bi0.5Na0.5)TiO3 (BZT-xBNT, x = 0–0.5) lead-free piezoelectric ceramics were synthesized by the conventional solid state reaction method. Systematic investigation on the structures and electrical properties of the ceramics was carried out. The results demonstrated that pure perovskite structure was obtained for al...

Background: Proteinuria is common in patients with acute heart failure (AHF). This study investigated the relationship between proteinuria and short-term mortality among patients hospitalized for AHF at two university hospitals. Methods: The death risk was assessed using a 30-day mortality risk score. Of the 1058 eligible patients with AHF, 583...

Left ventricular (LV) diastolic function was found to be a significant predictor of cardiovascular events and general mortality in dialysis. Studies have indicated that dialysate calcium concentrations were significantly associated with cardiac function. However, the relationship between low calcium dialysate and LV diastolic function has not been...

Objective: The study was performed to investigate the association of interleukin 17 (IL 17) or angiotensin II (Ang II) with refractory hypertension risk in hemodialysis patients. Methods: Ninety hemodialysis patients were enrolled into this study, and those with hypertension were divided into two groups. The Easy-to-Control Hypertension group (E...

Background: Podocyte apoptosis is a major mechanism that leads to proteinuria in many kidney diseases. However, the concert mechanisms that cause podocyte apoptosis in these kidney diseases are not fully understood. RhoA is one of Rho GTPases that has been well studied and plays a key role in regulating cytoskeletal architecture. Previous study sh...

Objective: To investigate the impact of heart valve calcification (HVC) on cardiovascular outcomes in patients on maintenance hemodialysis (MHD). Methods: We enrolled 302 Chinese patients on MHD between 2009 and 2011 including 99 with HVC identified by echocardiography screening. All the patients were followed up for 2 years and survival analysi...

High-level autophagy has an important role in maintaining the stable state of podocytes. The present study explored the influence of lipopolysaccharide (LPS) on autophagic activity in podocytes and demonstrated its mechanistic involvement in LPS-induced injury. Conditionally immortalized podocytes were cultured in vitro and were treated with chloro...

Background: The correlation between proteinuria and contrast-induced acute kidney injury (CI-AKI) in patients with cerebrovascular disease is still unknown. Objective: To determine whether proteinuria is a risk factor for CI-AKI and death in patients with stroke undergoing cerebral angiography. Methods: Data from 2015 patients with stroke unde...

Objective: This study was conducted to investigate whether urine HBV DNA could be a new aided diagnostic criterion for HBV-GN. Methods: A total of 150 patients were enrolled in this study. The patients were divided into the following groups: HBV-GN (66 patients), non-HBV-GN (64 patients), and chronic hepatitis B (CHB) without renal disease (20 pati...

Background: Tacrolimus inhibits hepatitis B virus entry into hepatocytes through targeting the HBV receptor, sodium taurocholate cotransporting polypeptide. This study was performed to evaluate the efficacy and safety of Tacrolimus combined with entecavir antiviral therapy for HBV-associated glomerulonephritis patients with biopsy-proven membranou...

Membranous nephropathy (MN) is the most common kidney disease reported in a variety of malignant diseases. Search for an occult malignancy in MN has presented special challenges. 124 MN patients with a physical examination not suspicious for cancer underwent screening for an occult malignancy with either 18F-Fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tom...

Background: Tacrolimus inhibits hepatitis B virus entry into hepatocytes through targeting the HBV receptor, sodium taurocholate cotransporting polypeptide. This study was performed to evaluate the efficacy and safety of Tacrolimus combined with entecavir antiviral therapy for HBV-associated glomerulonephritis patients with biopsy-proven membranou...

The vacuolar-type H+ adenosine triphosphatase (V-ATPase) plays an important role in cellular acidification and bone resorption by osteoclasts. However, the direct effect of bovine parathyroid hormone (bPTH) on V-ATPase has not yet been elucidated. The aim of the present study was to assess the effects of bPTH on V-ATPase and osteoclasts. Osteoclast...

The time-averaged serum potassium was more comprehensive to reflect the all-time changes of serum potassium levels during peritoneal dialysis (PD). However, the association of fluctuation of time-averaged serum potassium level with long-time survival of PD patients remains unknown. In this retrospective study, we included 357 incident PD patients i...

Integrin β1 and β3 expression by podocytes is required to maintain glomerular structural integrity. Previous studies have shown that aldosterone (ALD) is involved in glomerular podocyte injury, and mineralocorticoid receptor (MR) blocker spironolactone effectively reduces proteinuria in patients with diabetic nephropathy. The present study was desi...

The Hakka are a sub-ethnicity with unique diet customs in South China. This study investigated hyperphosphatemia in hemodialysis patients in relation to the current Hakka dietary customs and explored health education patterns for hyperphosphatemia control. Two continuous cross-sectional surveys were conducted among the local patients on dialysis. A...