Slovenian and international achievements in the field of regional citrate anticoagulation for hemodialysis were presented (and published) during ERA-EDTA (European Renal Association - European Dialysis and Trasnplant Association) Congress in Madrid.
B.04 Guest lecture
COBISS.SI-ID: 4073132BACKGROUND: The majority of sera from patients with primary membranous nephropathy have autoantibodies against the M-type phospholipase A2 receptor (PLA2R) which is expressed on human podocytes. The rabbit variant of PLA2R attaches to collagen type IV via the fibronectin type II domain, which is also present in the human variant of PLA2R. DESIGN: To assess whether the human PLA2R variant is also involved in attachment to collagen type IV, we conducted a cell adhesion assay on a collagen-coated surface using PLA2R-transfected and mock-transfected human embryonic kidney (HEK) cells. To test the hypothesis that sera from patients containing anti-PLA2R antibodies interfere with the adhesion of podocytes to collagen, we performed cell adhesion assays on a collagen type IV-coated surface using positive and negative serum samples from patients and cultured human podocytes in vitro expressing PLA2R. RESULTS: The HEK cell adhesion assay confirmed an enhanced attachment of PLA2R-transfected cells to collagen type IV. We confirmed diminished podocyte adhesion in the presence of serum with anti-PLA2R antibodies. The concentration of anti-PLA2R antibodies correlated with proteinuria and to the degree of diminished adhesion of podocytes. CONCLUSIONS: We demonstrated that serum of patients containing autoantibodies directed to PLA2R interferes with the ability of podocytes to attach to collagen type IV in vitro, providing evidence of a serum soluble pathogenic factor interfering with podocyte adhesion in membranous nephropathy.
D.09 Tutoring for postgraduate students
COBISS.SI-ID: 289549824BACKGROUND: Longest bipolar length of the kidney graft is routinely measured for ultrasonographic assessment of graft size (GS), although the value of the graft length remains unclear. METHODS: In a single-center, observational study involving 319 deceased-donor kidney transplant recipients, we assessed variations in absolute and adjusted GS (corrected for body surface area) between 1 and 12 months after transplantation ([INCREMENT]GS1m→12m). We tested whether variations in GS during the first year were predictive of the composite outcome of a reduction of 50% or more in the estimated glomerular filtration rate or end-stage graft failure. RESULTS: At 1 year after transplantation, 121 patients (38%) had a decrease in GS ([INCREMENT]GS1m→12m (0), and 198 patients (62%) had an increase in GS ([INCREMENT]GS1m→12m ≥0). After a median follow-up of 53 months, 41 patients with a decrease in GS reached the composite outcome as compared with 12 patients with an increase in GS (34% and 6%, respectively; P ( 0.001). Areas under the receiver operating characteristics curves of absolute and adjusted [INCREMENT]GS1m→12m for composite outcome were 0.81 (95% confidence interval [95% CI], 0.74-0.88) and 0.78 (95% CI, 0.70-0.86), respectively. In multivariate analysis, the risk of the composite outcome was significantly higher among patients with a decrease in GS during the first year after transplantation (hazard ratio, 4.55; 95% CI, 2.35-8.81; P ( 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: A decrease in kidney GS during the first year after transplantation, as compared with an increase in GS, is a powerful predictor of subsequent graft dysfunction or end-stage graft failure.
D.09 Tutoring for postgraduate students
COBISS.SI-ID: 292803072Damjan Kovač, Radoslav Kveder and Andrej Škoberne were guest editors of the supplement issue of the Clinical Nephrology, dedicated to selected contributions from the Slovenian Congress of Nephrology 2016
C.03 Guest-associated editor
Member of the Editorial Board of international journal
C.04 Editorial board of an international magazine
COBISS.SI-ID: 17211353