Cadmium is a nonessential metal that has heavily polluted the environment due to human
activities. It can be absorbed into the human body via the gastrointestinal tract, respiratory …

Ischemia-reperfusion (IR) injury occurs when blood supply to an organ is disrupted—
ischemia—and then restored—reperfusion—leading to a burst of reactive oxygen species …

Acute kidney injury (AKI) is the leading cause of nephrology consultation and is associated
with high mortality rates. The primary causes of AKI include ischemia, hypoxia or …

Autophagy is induced in renal tubular cells during acute kidney injury; however, whether this
is protective or injurious remains controversial. We address this question by pharmacologic …

Cancer is one of the leading causes of death worldwide. Conventional cancer therapies
mainly focus on mass cell killing without high specificity and often cause severe side effects …

The mechanism of mitochondrial damage, a key contributor to renal tubular cell death during
acute kidney injury, remains largely unknown. Here, we have demonstrated a striking …

Organismal homeostasis depends on an intricate balance between cell death and renewal.
Early pathologists recognized that this balance could be disrupted by the extensive damage …

TLRs are conserved pattern recognition receptors that detect motifs of pathogens and host
material released during injury. For unknown reasons, renal TLR2 mRNA is mainly …

Metallothioneins are cysteine-rich, small metal-binding proteins present in various
mammalian tissues. Of the four common metallothioneins, MT-1 and MT-2 (MTs) are …

Mesenchymal stem cell-derived extracellular vesicles (MSC-EVs) have shown great
potential for tissue repair, but their therapeutic capacity is limited by rapid clearance and …