This interview is with Cell & Tissue Transplantation & Therapy editorial board member Dr Terje Forslund. Cell & Tissue Transplantation & Therapy is an open access journal published by Libertas Academica.

Editor in Chief Dr David T Harris has recently issued a call for papers.

What is the primary focus of your research?

Kidney diseases, hypertension, vascular active peptides (like renin, angiotension, atrial natriuretic peptide, endothelin), regulative mechanisms in renal failure.

What are the most exciting developments arising from current research in your area?

At beginning of my research career I was introduced to the renin-angiotensin system and angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE). In our first experiments with ACE inhibitors in 1978 we were able to show that inhibition of ACE with captopril decreased the heart/body weight index in spontaneously hypertensive rats pointing to prevention and regression of left ventricular hypertrophy. Although never much referred in the literature, we were probably the first in the world to show this phenomenon. ACE inhibition was later on shown to be the case also in hypertensive patients.

Who are your main collaborators? Please describe your work with them.

My most important collaberator was Professor Frej Fyhrquist, Professor in Internal Medicine, Helsinki University, Helsinki, Finland. He was the one to lead me on with experimental research, resulting in several publications in the field described above.

Professor Bjarne M. Iversen, Institute of Medicine, University of Bergen, Bergen, Norway, also has contributed to my interest in experimental glomerulonephritis during my stay in Bergen in the years 1998 - 2000. Several other collegues also has participated and given their contribution to my research and Associate Professor Ilkka Tikkanen, Helsinki University Hospital, Helsinki, Finland was an important teacher in how to measure blood pressure in the rat tail. Later on, my course of reasecrh has been more in the clinical sphere.

How did you come to be working in your research area?

I was a general practitioner from 1972 until 1978 at which point of time I went to Helsinki University in order to be a specialist in Internal Medicine and Nephrology. Early after arriving at Department of Internal Medicine, at Department of Medicine I was introduced to Professor Fyhrquist who inspired me to do experimental research, resulting in a doctors thesis in 1984, and thereafter also urged me to continue in research beside my clinical work at hospital as a nephrologist.

What do you think about the development of open access publishing? Have you published in an open access journal? What motivated you to do so?

I have several publication in many journals, both in non-open access as in open-access journals. The motivation to use open access journals too, came from the fact that several of non-open access journals do have a non-acceptable policy. Firstly, in many of these journals the researcher pays for the article to be published and if you want to read articles in that same journal you have to pay again. This is also the case for hospitals that use enormous amounts of money to obtain the literature needed. Another aspect is that the time sequence from submitting a manuscript until decision may take very long, which may give rise to suspicion of copying ideas. (Our first paper, the time from submittance to negative decision was 9 months, obstructing us to publish it in another journal).

What articles and/or books have you published recently?

Lately I have mostly published case reports with a clinical importance, of which some are listed below:

Leh S, Vaagnes Ø, Margolin SB, Iversen BM, Forslund T. Pirfenidone and candesartan ameliorate morphological damage in mild chronic anti-GBM nephritis in rats. Nephrol. Dial. Transplant. 2005; 20: 71 - 82 Forslund T et al. IgA nephropathy in a patient with IgG lambda light-chain plasmacytoma; a rare coincidence. Nephrol Dial Transplant 2007; 22: 2705 - 2708.

Forslund T et al. Mesangial proliferative glomerulonephritis after autologous stem cell transplantation; a case report. Am J Kidney Dis 2006; 48: 314 - 320.

Forslund T et al. Malignant myeloma in a patient after treatment for osteoporosis with teriparatide; a rare coincidence. Clinical Med: Case Reports 2008; 1: 119 – 122.

Forslund T et al. Experience with Cinacalcet treatment in patients with predialytic stage III and IV chronic renal failure and secondary hyperparathyroidism. Clinical Medicine: Therapeutics 2009 (in press).

Contributed with a chapter in a book:

Forslund T. Stem cell transplantation in leukemia: The kidney. In: Stem Cell Transplantation, Tissue Engineering and Cancer Applications. Eds: Bernard N. Kennedy. Novo Science Publishers, NY, USA, 2008 (ISBN: 978-1-60692-107-4; in print).