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New with Video: Nephrologists Discover Cause of Common Kidney Disease
Nephrologists at the Miller School have solved a
decades-long search for the cause of a significant form of chronic kidney
disease – Focal Segmental Glomerulosclerosis (FSGS). Working with
mouse models and a bank of patient samples, scientists have discovered the
first circulating factor known to start the process leading to FSGS. The finding, a fundamental principle of the origin of
kidney disease, is published in the July 31 edition of
the journal Nature Medicine.
Click here for Dr. Reiser's video explaining this finding exclusively at NephCure's YouTube Channel.
Story courtesy of http://www.med.miami.edu/.
Jochen Reiser, M.D., Ph.D., professor and vice chair for research in the Department of Medicine and chief of the Division of Nephrology and Hypertension, and Changli Wei, M.D., Ph.D., assistant professor of medicine in the Division of Nephrology and Hypertension, led a team of international researchers and physicians in discovering that a soluble form of the urokinase plasminogen activator receptor (suPAR) is a factor in triggering glomerular kidney disease.
“This is truly monumental and a great team effort that paid off,” Reiser said, “because we can measure the amount of suPAR, and develop targeted treatments for that factor or prevent what it does to the kidney.”
Each kidney is made up of approximately one