Phytolaccae had been used as a pharmaceutical drug or food But nowadays, due to its toxicity, Phytolaccae is rarely used and cases of patients poisoned with it are seldom reported. The case presented here was of 43 year-old male who after ingesting extract of Phytolacca esculenta suffered from abdominal pain, diarrhea, nausea, vomiting, tachycardia, hypotension, pruritus, paresthesia, oliguria and azotemia. Kidney biopsy revealed tubular necrosis and some protein casts in tubular lumens. These findings suggested that acute renal failure was mainly caused by nephrotoxicity of Phytolacca extracts. Through continuous arteriovenous hemofiltration and two times of hemodialysis, he was completely recovered from acute renal failure. Other symptoms also disappeared by symptomatic management, but paresthesia of both lower extremities still remained. So we reported this case with a brief review of literature.
Abdominal Pain ; Acute Kidney Injury* ; Adult ; Azotemia ; Biopsy ; Diarrhea ; Hemofiltration ; Humans ; Hypotension ; Kidney ; Lower Extremity ; Male ; Nausea ; Necrosis ; Oliguria ; Paresthesia ; Phytolacca* ; Poisoning* ; Pruritus ; Renal Dialysis ; Tachycardia ; Vomiting

We previously reported that transgenic mice produced with a transgene consisting of the SV40 T antigen and vasopressin without the 3'-flanking region exhibit brain tumors and lymphoma. In this study, transgenic mice were produced with the fusion gene containing the SV40 T antigen and the whole vasopressin gene with the 3'-flanking region. Six transgenic mice were generated, five which died after 2-6 weeks. The remaining founder mouse was investigated for fusion gene expression and tumor progression at the age of 6 weeks. Brain tumor cells were characterized for phenotypes and transgene expression. During in vitro cell cultures, the phenotypic appearances at 10, 20, and 30 passages were as a uniform monolayer with similar growth rates. The site of SV40 T antigen integration was in the A2 region of chromosome 11, and SV40 T antigen was expressed at the same level in cells of both earlier and later passages. Thirty passages were probably insufficient to reach crisis and immortalization. These cells enriched brain tumor cell compositions with astrocytes and neuronal cells.
Vasopressins/genetics/*metabolism ; Transgenes/genetics ; Recombinant Fusion Proteins/genetics/metabolism ; Plasmids/genetics ; Mice, Transgenic ; Mice, Inbred ICR ; Mice ; In Situ Hybridization, Fluorescence/methods ; Immunoenzyme Techniques ; Gene Expression/genetics ; Cell Proliferation ; Cell Line, Tumor ; Brain Neoplasms/genetics/*metabolism/pathology ; Blotting, Western ; Antigens, Polyomavirus Transforming/genetics/*metabolism ; Animals