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Although chronological donor age is the most potent predictor of long-term outcome after renal transplantation, it does not incorporate individual differences of the aging-process itself. We therefore hypothesized that an estimate of biological organ age as derived from markers of cellular senescence in zero hour biopsies would be of higher predictive value. Telomere length and mRNA expression levels of the cell cycle inhibitors CDKN2A (p16INK4a) and CDKN1A (p21WAF1) were assessed in pre-implantation biopsies of 54 patients and the association of these and various other clinical parameters with serum creatinine after 1 year was determined. In a linear regression analysis, CDKN2A turned out to be the best single predictor followed by donor age and telomere length. A multiple linear regression analysis revealed that the combination of CDKN2A values and donor age yielded even higher predictive values for serum creatinine 1 year after transplantation. We conclude that the molecular aging marker CDKN2A in combination with chronological donor age predict renal allograft function after 1 year significantly better than chronological donor age alone.

Genome wide gene expression analysis by cDNA microarrays is often limited by minute amounts of starting RNA. We therefore tested an optimized linear RNA amplification protocol using the RiboAmp amplification kit in the setting of cDNA microarrays. We isolated mRNA from a human kidney cell line (HK-2; ATCC) and from Universal Human Reference RNA (STR; Stratagene). After performing one and two rounds of linear RNA amplification, respectively, the amplified RNAs were co-hybridized to cDNA microarrays. Linearity and reproducibility of the individual experiments were then assessed by calculating the Pearson correlation. The intra-amplification consistency showed a correlation of 0.968 for the first round, 0.907 for the second round and 0.912 for two successive rounds of amplification. If the first round was compared to unamplified material, r was 0.925. The second round amplification yielded a correlation of 0.897 if compared to unamplified mRNA. Two rounds of amplification starting from 200 pg of mRNA compared to unamplified material resulted in a correlation of 0.868. These results indicate that linear amplification using RiboAmp kit yields amplified RNA with a high degree of linearity and reproducibility., (Copyright 2004 S. Karger AG, Basel)

Ischemic peripheral neuropathy is a frequent, irreversible complication of lower extremity vascular insufficiency. We investigated whether ischemic peripheral neuropathy could be prevented and/or reversed by gene transfer of an endothelial cell mitogen designed to promote therapeutic angiogenesis. Intramuscular gene transfer of naked DNA encoding vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) simultaneously with induction of hindlimb ischemia in rabbits abrogated the substantial decrease in motor and sensory nerve parameters, and nerve function recovered promptly. When gene transfer was administered 10 days after induction of ischemia, nerve function was restored earlier and/or recovered faster than in untreated rabbits. These findings are due in part to enhanced hindlimb perfusion. In addition, however, the demonstration of functional VEGF receptor expression by Schwann cells indicates a direct effect of VEGF on neural integrity as well. These findings thus constitute a new paradigm for the treatment of ischemic peripheral neuropathy.