Three patients with homozygous mutations in the integrin α3 gene, a transmembrane integrin receptor subunit, were found to have disrupted basement-membrane structures causing congenital nephrotic syndrome, interstitial lung disease, and epidermolysis bullosa.

Genetic analysis was applied to different regions of renal-cell cancers. The lesions noted in the tumor were not found in every sample, and regions of the tumor had different gene-expression patterns. This suggests that extrapolation from results of a single biopsy may be problematic.

In this double-blind, randomized trial, mycophenolate mofetil was superior to azathioprine for maintaining a renal response and preventing relapse in patients with lupus nephritis who had had a response to induction therapy.

An epidemic of foodborne infection with Escherichia coli associated with a high rate of the hemolytic–uremic syndrome and caused by a novel E. coli strain (O104:H4) recently occurred in Germany. This final report updates epidemiologic, clinical, and microbiologic information.

In May 2011, an outbreak of the hemolytic–uremic syndrome associated with Shiga-toxin–producing Escherichia coli O104:H4 occurred in northern Germany. In this report, the investigation identified sprouts as the likely transmission vehicle.

The authors sequenced the genome of an isolate of the E. coli strain causing the outbreak of bloody diarrhea and the hemolytic–uremic syndrome (HUS) in Germany. This genome differed from those of other O104:H4 enteroaggregative E. coli known to cause diarrhea but not HUS.

The authors sequenced the genome of an isolate of E. coli obtained from a German girl with bloody diarrhea and shared the data online with other researchers, facilitating rapid assembly of the genome.