title: Mindin: a novel marker for podocyte injury in diabetic nephropathy.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  GeneChip Expression Analysis was employed to survey the glomerular gene expression profile in a type 2 diabetes (T2D) model of KK/Ta mice fed with a high-calorie diet (HC), and we focused on the role of mindin (also called spondin 2), whose expression is upregulated by HC.
  
  
  METHODS
  Isolated glomeruli from three 20-week-old KK/Ta mice fed with HC or a standard diet (SD) were dissected. Total RNA was extracted and labelled for hybridization using the Affymetrix GeneChip Mouse Genome 430 2.0 Array. The gene expression profile was compared between the HC and SD groups using GeneSpring 7.3.1 software. Mindin expression was examined using real-time PCR, western blot analysis and immunohistochemical staining in the glomeruli, cultured podocytes and urine samples of both mice and humans.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Podocyte foot process effacement was observed in mice fed with HC. The mindin protein expression levels in mice were localized in the podocytes, and their levels in the glomeruli were increased in the HC group compared with the SD group. The levels of urinary mindin in the HC group at 16 weeks of age were also significantly higher than those in the SD group although albumin/creatinine ratio (ACR) did not differ between the groups. Furthermore, the levels in patients with T2D were higher than those in healthy individuals and increased gradually with increases in ACR.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Mindin could be related to podocyte injury and appears to be an early biomarker of the progression of diabetic nephropathy.
authors.affiliation: Division of Nephrology, Department of Internal Medicine, Juntendo University Faculty of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan.
authors.forename: Maki
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Murakoshi
authors.forename: Mitsuo
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Tanimoto
authors.forename: Tomohito
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Gohda
authors.forename: Shinji
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Hagiwara
authors.forename: Miyuki
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Takagi
authors.forename: Satoshi
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Horikoshi
authors.forename: Yasuhiko
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Tomino
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D015415:Biomarkers / Q000652:urine*; D015153:Blotting, Western; D031204:Caloric Restriction; D003924:Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2 / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000652:urine*; D003928:Diabetic Nephropathies / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000652:urine*; D016326:Extracellular Matrix Proteins / Q000652:urine*; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling; D006801:Humans; D007124:Immunoenzyme Techniques; D007678:Kidney Glomerulus / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology; D008297:Male; D051379:Mice; D020411:Oligonucleotide Array Sequence Analysis; D050199:Podocytes / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology; D012333:RNA, Messenger / Q000235:genetics; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction
chemical_list: D015415:Biomarkers; D016326:Extracellular Matrix Proteins; D012333:RNA, Messenger; C121491:mindin