Obesity and kidney disease
The focus of World Kidney Day 2017 is ‘kidney disease and obesity’. To mark this occasion, Nature Reviews Nephrology presents a special collection of Reviews and commentaries that describe the relationship between obesity and the kidneys.
The worldwide increase in the prevalence of obesity has led to an increase in the prevalence of related chronic diseases, including diabetes mellitus, hypertension, cardiovascular disease and chronic kidney disease. The mechanisms by which increased adiposity leads to renal dysfunction are likely multifactorial, involving alterations in renal haemodynamics, adipokine signalling and fatty acid and cholesterol metabolism as well as insulin resistance, inflammation and intestinal dysbiosis.
The articles in this collection discuss topics including the characteristics and pathogenesis of obesity-related glomerulopathy, the importance of physical activity for patients with renal disease, the effect of insulin resistance on the kidney, HDL abnormalities in nephrotic syndrome, and organ cross-talk. In a specially commissioned Viewpoint article, five leading researchers describe changes in the epidemiology of obesity-related kidney disease, advances in current understanding of the mechanisms involved and approaches to the management of affected patients.
