Advances in urinary proteome analysis and biomarker discovery

Noninvasive diagnosis of kidney diseases and assessment of the prognosis are still challenges in clinical nephrology. Definition of biomarkers on the basis of proteome analysis, especially of the urine, has advanced recently and may provide new tools to solve those challenges. This article highlights the most promising technological approaches toward deciphering the human proteome and applications of the knowledge in clinical nephrology, with emphasis on the urinary proteome. The data in the current literature indicate that although a thorough investigation of the entire urinary proteome is still a distant goal, clinical applications are already available. Progress in the analysis of human proteome in health and disease will depend more on the standardization of data and availability of suitable bioinformatics and software solutions than on new technological advances. It is predicted that proteomics will play an important role in clinical nephrology in the very near future and that this progress will require interactive dialogue and collaboration between clinicians and analytical specialists.     

Flow cytometry for diagnosis and assessment of prognosis in patients with myelodysplastic syndromes

The Myelodysplastic Syndrome (MDS) comprises a spectrum of hematopoietic stem cell disorders. Identification of additional parameters that might distinguish different risk groups or entities would be useful. Flow cytometric studies have begun to characterize individual or composite immunophenotypic abnormalities as well as light scatter properties that may be helpful for diagnosis and of prognostic value for the natural course of the disease and for outcome after therapy. Here we review the current state of the art of the use of flow cytometry in patients with MDS.