Regeneration of specialized cells offers hope for treating chronic kidney disease

Damage to podocytes — a specialized type of epithelial cell in the kidney — occurs in more than 90 percent of all chronic kidney disease. Now researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine have uncovered an unexpected pathway that reveals for the first time how these cells may regenerate and renew themselves during normal kidney function.

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Nearly half the world’s adults will experience lower urinary tract symptoms by 2018

Nearly half of all adults over 20 will experience at least one lower urinary tract symptom by 2018 - an estimated 2.3 billion people and a worldwide increase of 18% in just one decade - according to research in the October issue of the urology journal BJUI.

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Metabolic syndrome may cause kidney disease

High blood pressure, high blood sugar, abdominal fat, low good cholesterol may contribute to kidney disease

Metabolic syndrome comprises a group of medical disorders that increase people’s risk of diabetes, heart disease, stroke, and premature death when they occur together. A patient is diagnosed with the syndrome when he or she exhibits three or more of the following characteristics: high blood pressure, high blood sugar, excess body fat in the waist/abdomen, low good cholesterol, and higher levels of fatty acids (the building blocks of fat).

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Minimal scar techniques in living donors for kidney transplant

Hospital Clínic of Barcelona applied this proceeding for the first time in the world to living donors for kidney trasplant

This release is available in Spanish.

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Could patients’ own kidney cells cure kidney disease?

Reprogrammed kidney cells could make transplants and dialysis things of the past

• Patients’ own kidney cells can be reprogrammed and used as therapy against kidney disease
• Cells can easily be collected from the urine
• 88,000 patients are waiting for a kidney transplant in the United States, and they wait for an average of 3 to 5 years

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UCSB scientists discover new drug target for kidney disease

(Santa Barbara, Calif.) — Two discoveries at UC Santa Barbara point to potential new drug therapies for patients with kidney disease. The findings are published in this week’s issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

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Stem cell transplants help kidney damage

Tampa, Fla. (Feb. 14, 2011) – Transplanting autologous renal progenitor cells (RPCs), (kidney stem cells derived from self-donors), into rat models with kidney damage from pyelonephritis - a type of urinary infection that has reached the kidney - has been found to improve kidney structure and function.

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Kidney disease patients: Eat your veggies, reward your kidneys

Vegetarian diet lowers blood and urine phosphorous levels

Phosphorous levels plummet in kidney disease patients who stick to a vegetarian diet, according to a study appearing in an upcoming issue of the Clinical Journal of the American Society Nephrology (CJASN). The results suggest that eating vegetables rather than meat can help kidney disease patients avoid accumulating toxic levels of this mineral in their bodies.

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Protein offers new clue to cause and treatment for kidney disease

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – University of Alabama at Birmingham researchers have pinpointed a protein that compromises the kidney’s filtering ability, causing nephrotic syndrome, and demonstrated that a naturally occurring precursor of an acid in the body offers potential for treating some forms of the condition.

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New approach may help dialysis patients fight anemia

A drug called FG-2216 stimulates ‘EPO’ production — even in patients without kidneys

A new drug called FG-2216 can stimulate production of the hormone erythropoietin (EPO) in dialysis patients—possibly offering a new approach to treatment of kidney disease-related anemia, according to a study appearing in an upcoming issue of the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology (JASN).

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