Effect of oral calcium carbonate on aortic calcification in apolipoprotein E-deficient (apoE-/-) mice with chronic renal failure.

BACKGROUND: In chronic kidney disease (CKD) patients, the intake of calcium-based phosphate binders is associated with a marked progression of coronary artery and aortic calcification, in contrast to patients receiving calcium-free phosphate binders. The aim of this study was to reexamine the role of calcium carbonate in vascular calcification and to analyse its effect on aortic calcification-related gene expression in chronic renal failure (CRF). METHODS: Mice deficient in apolipoprotein E underwent either sham operation or subtotal nephrectomy to create CRF. They were then randomly assigned to one of the three following groups: a control non-CRF group and a CRF group fed on standard diet, and a CRF group fed on calcium carbonate enriched diet, for a period of 8 weeks. Aortic atherosclerotic plaque and calcification were evaluated using quantitative morphologic image processing. Aortic gene and protein expression was examined using immunohistochemistry and Q-PCR methods. RESULTS: Calcium carbonate supplementation was effective in decreasing serum phosphorus but was associated with a higher serum calcium concentration. Compared with standard diet, calcium carbonate enriched diet unexpectedly induced a significant decrease of both plaque (p<0.05) and non-plaque-associated calcification surface (p<0.05) in CRF mice. It also increased osteopontin (OPN) protein expression in atherosclerotic lesion areas of aortic root. There was also a numerical increase in OPN and osteoprotegerin gene expression in total thoracic aorta but the difference did not reach the level of significance. Finally, calcium carbonate did not change the severity of atherosclerotic lesions. CONCLUSION: In this experimental model of CRF, calcium carbonate supplementation did not accelerate but instead decreased vascular calcification. If our observation can be extrapolated to humans, it appears to question the contention that calcium carbonate supplementation, at least when given in moderate amounts, necessarily enhances vascular calcification. It is also compatible with the hypothesis of a preponderant role of phosphorus over that of calcium in promoting vascular calcification in CRF.

Upper Cretaceous (Santonian-Campanian) radiolarians from Voronesh Anticline, southwestern Russia

Core-samples from wells and an outcrop located on the Voronesh Anticline in the southeastern part of the Russian Platform contain Late Cretaceous radiolaria. 83 species are described and illustrated (SEM and transmitted light images) from Santonian-early Campanian deposits, and two assemblages are distinguished. The older assemblage with Alievium gallowayi, Archaeospongoprunum bipartitum, Archaeospongoprunum. cf. A. salumi as well as other less age-diagnostic taxa, is interpreted as Santonian correlative with the Euchitonia santonica-Alievium gallowayi Assemblage Zone of the Moscow Basin (Vishnevskaya 1993). The younger assemblage, of Santonian - early Campanian age, contains Patulibracchium cf. P. davisi, Crucella irwini, Cryptamphorella sphaerica, Praeconocaryomma californiensis, Dictyomitra lamellicostata among other species and is correlative with the Orbiculiforma quadrata-Lithostrobus rostovtsevi Assemblage Zone of the Moscow Basin. In terms of inter-regional faunal comparisons, both of the Voronesh Anticline radiolarian assemblages demonstrate relatively close affinities to coeval rocks from the Volga River region, but less similarity to the assemblages from the Moscow Basin. Only a few of the common endemic species of Siberian assemblages occur in our samples. On an inter-regional level, the radiolarian assemblages described herein have similarities with assemblages reported from Japan and California. Index-species characteristic for the Santonian-Campanian radiolarian biozonations of the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans are not found in our collection. However, the presence of many cosmopolitan species known from the European Platform, Japan and California suggests a marine connection between the Voronesh Anticline region, the western Atlantic and eastern Tethys during Santonian-Early Campanian time.