1in9 Kidney Awareness Documentary Visits Division of Nephrology

Analyn Scott swipes through the pictures on her phone, finds the one she is searching for and proudly holds it up for all to see. The picture is of a man and woman in full Dancing with the Stars costumes, frozen mid-step in what appears to be a very energetic dance. “Tell me if that […]

APOL1 Gene Variants are Causal Factors of Kidney Disease in African Americans

Professor of Medicine Jeff Miner, PhD, FASN, Division of Nephrology, is co-author of a recent study in Nature Medicine that proves that certain variants of the APOL1 gene cause kidney disease. For years, it has been known that African Americans have a 3-5-fold increased risk of developing chronic kidney disease (CKD) and end-stage renal disease […]

Angiopoietin-1 Mitigates Renal Fibrosis

Angiopoietin-1 (Ang-1), a vascular growth factor secreted by kidney proximal tubular cells, pericytes and podocytes, is essential for regulating blood vessel development and repair after injury.  Ang-1 is also a promising therapeutic agent to target renal fibrosis, according to a study by WU researchers recently published in PLoSOne, As a result of injury to the […]

Urea – A Novel link between CKD and Diabetes

While it is well known that type 2 diabetes is a common cause of Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD), researchers have just shown that the opposite may be true.  The study, published in JCI, demonstrates that urea is directly responsible for impairing insulin secretion in CKD.  In a press release, Laetitia Koppe, MD, PhD, from the […]