FG 1368

The combination of Duska Dragun and Wolf-Hagen Schunck brings together long-standing interest in the area of renal transplantation with in depth knowledge of the role of arachidonic acid metabolites. Dragun studies the vascular mechanisms involved in the pathogenesis of AKI in native and transplanted kidneys in experimental and clinical settings. In particular, the finding that agonistic autoantibody-mediated activation of angiotensin II-type 1 receptor induces pro-inflammatory downstream cascades in the vasculature and severe injury of the renal allograft with consecutive hypertension has received widespread attention. Schunck has recently demonstrated that cytochrome P450 (CYP) dependent 20-HETE generation and action is involved in the development of renal ischemia/reperfusion injury (I/RI).