acid-phosphatase and Hyperoxaluria

Oxalate induced renal calculi formation and the associated renal injury is thought to be caused by free radical mediated mechanisms. An in vivo model was used to investigate the effect of phycocyanin (from Spirulina platensis), a known antioxidant, against calcium oxalate urolithiasis. Male Wistar rats were divided into four groups. Hyperoxaluria was induced in two of these groups by intraperitoneal infusion of sodium oxalate (70 mg/kg) and a pretreatment of phycocyanin (100 mg/kg) as a single oral dosage was given, 1h prior to sodium oxalate infusion. An untreated control and drug control (phycocyanin alone) were also included in the study. We observed that phycocyanin significantly controlled the early biochemical changes in calcium oxalate stone formation. The antiurolithic nature of the drug was evaluated by the assessment of urinary risk factors and light microscopic observation of urinary crystals. Renal tubular damage as divulged by urinary marker enzymes (alkaline phosphatase, acid phosphatase and gamma-glutamyl transferase) and histopathological observations such as decreased tubulointerstitial, tubular dilatation and mononuclear inflammatory cells, indicated that renal damage was minimised in drug-pretreated group. Oxalate levels (P < 0.001) and lipid peroxidation (P < 0.001) in kidney tissue were significantly controlled by drug pretreatment, suggesting the ability of phycocyanin to quench the free radicals, thereby preventing the lipid peroxidation mediated tissue damage and oxalate entry. This accounts for the prevention of CaOx stones. Thus, the present analysis revealed the antioxidant and antiurolithic potential of phycocyanin thereby projecting it as a promising therapeutic agent against renal cell injury associated kidney stone formation.

Topics: Acid Phosphatase; Alkaline Phosphatase; Animals; Antioxidants; Bacterial Proteins; Biomarkers; Cyanobacteria; Disease Models, Animal; gamma-Glutamyltransferase; Hyperoxaluria; Kidney; Kidney Calculi; Lipid Peroxidation; Male; Oxalates; Phycocyanin; Rats; Rats, Wistar; Spirulina

Nuclear inclusions, identical to those characteristic of Paget's disease of bone, were observed in giant cells in four of eight cases of primary oxalosis. The giant cells containing nuclear inclusions were directly involved in phagocytosis of large oxalate crystals in the context of typical foreign body granulomas in the bone marrow. Cytochemically, all of them exhibited strong tartrate-resistant acid phosphatase activity, and a proportion of them also tartrate-resistant acid ATPase. The inclusions consisted of typical arrays of filamentous material as described in Paget's disease, admixed with variable proportions of electron-dense material closely reminiscent of nucleolar pars fibrillaris and fibrillary centres. These data indicate: (a) the occurrence of Paget-like inclusions in a bone disease unrelated to Paget's disease, not causally related to viral infection, and resulting from an inborn metabolic derangement; and (b) the occurrence of Paget-like inclusions in foreign body giant cells as opposed to osteoclasts. We suggest that the occurrence of paramyxovirus-like nuclear inclusions in either osteoclasts or giant cells may represent an epiphenomenon of cell fusion and giant cell formation whenever appropriate stimuli act on latently infected precursor cells. Furthermore, our data suggest that nucleoli may represent the specific site of virus-like inclusion formation.

Topics: Acid Phosphatase; Adenosine Triphosphatases; Adolescent; Adult; Bone and Bones; Cell Nucleus; Crystallization; Giant Cells, Foreign-Body; Humans; Hyperoxaluria; Immunohistochemistry; Microscopy, Electron; Osteitis Deformans; Osteoclasts; Oxalates; Paramyxoviridae; Respirovirus Infections; Retrospective Studies