Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

Volume 6 Issue 3, March 2010

Editorial

Top of page ⤴

Research Highlight

Top of page ⤴

In Brief

Top of page ⤴

Research Highlight

Top of page ⤴

In Brief

Top of page ⤴

Research Highlight

Top of page ⤴

News & Views

  • Kidney transplant recipients and their health-care providers have access to an ever-expanding amount of information to aid decision-making in family planning. But are untargeted statistical databases an adequate tool for achieving this goal?

    • Lisa A. Coscia
    • Vincent T. Armenti
    News & Views
  • Masked hypertension—which is present in about 25% of adult patients initially classified as normotensive—is associated with left ventricular hypertrophy and is a well-documented marker of cardiovascular risk in adults. A recent study has found that masked hypertension is also an important and underdiagnosed cardiovascular risk factor in children.

    • Robert H. Mak
    • George Bakris
    News & Views
  • In 2003, the International Society of Nephrology and the International Diabetes Federation launched a campaign to highlight the global pandemic of type 2 diabetes and diabetic kidney disease. It aimed to alert governments, health organizations, health-care providers, doctors, and patients to the increasing health and socioeconomic problems associated with diabetic kidney disease and its sequelae, end-stage renal disease. Today, 7 years later, the same message is even more urgent.

    • Robert C. Atkins
    • Paul Zimmet
    News & Views
  • The cardiac evaluation and management of patients with stage 4 or 5 chronic kidney disease prior to renal transplantation is a collaborative effort between nephrologists and cardiologists. Concerns exist, however, that contrast-induced acute kidney injury occurring as a consequence of coronary angiography has the potential to hasten the progression to dialysis before transplantation.

    • Peter A. McCullough
    News & Views
  • Recent randomized, controlled trials suggest that B-cell-depletion therapy with rituximab effectively induces remission in anti-neutrophil-cytoplasmic-antibody-associated vasculitis but is ineffective in patients with lupus nephritis or nonrenal systemic lupus erythematosus with moderate-to-severe disease activity.

    • Xavier Bosch
    News & Views
  • A major challenge to the success of transplantations is ensuring that patients take their immunosuppressive drugs regularly, as nonadherence is a major risk factor for poor clinical outcomes. Optimal transplantation care must include adherence-enhancing interventions as part of regular patient management.

    • Sabina De Geest
    • Fabienne Dobbels
    News & Views
Top of page ⤴

Review Article

  • Elderly hospitalized patients are at high risk of developing acute kidney injury (AKI). In this Review, Alexandra Chronopoulos and colleagues discuss the reasons for the increased risk of AKI in this patient group, including age-related changes in the kidney, systemic vasculature, and immunological system, as well as frequent comorbidities and high exposure to iatrogenic insults such as medications, radiocontrast agents, and surgery. The difficulties of treating AKI in older individuals are also described, and the importance of early diagnosis is emphasized.

    • Alexandra Chronopoulos
    • Dinna N. Cruz
    • Claudio Ronco
    Review Article
  • Narrowing of the renal artery reduces renal perfusion and can lead to hypertension, renal dysfunction and/or pulmonary edema. In this Review, Plouin and Bax discuss the diagnosis and management of the two most common types of renal artery stenosis: atherosclerotic renal artery stenosis and fibromuscular renal artery dysplasia. The authors also describe recent data from randomized, controlled trials of patients with atherosclerotic renal artery stenosis.

    • Pierre-François Plouin
    • Liesbeth Bax
    Review Article
  • A number of new promising agents for the prevention of acute and chronic transplant rejection have been or are being developed. In this Review, Antoine Durrbach and colleagues discuss agents that interfere with antibody-mediated rejection and those that deplete allogenic T cells or inhibit T-cell activation. The capacity of these agents to prevent acute rejection is also described.

    • Antoine Durrbach
    • Helene Francois
    • Bernard Charpentier
    Review Article
  • Of the aquaporins found in humans, seven are known to be expressed in the kidneys. In this Review, Noda et al. discuss evidence from clinical and animal studies regarding the localization, physiological function and mechanism of regulation of these water channels in renal cells. The authors also describe the pathological conditions associated with dysfunctional aquaporins with particular attention dedicated to the water channel aquaporin-2 and to nephrogenic diabetes insipidus, a condition associated with dysfunctional aquaporin-2.

    • Yumi Noda
    • Eisei Sohara
    • Sei Sasaki
    Review Article
Top of page ⤴

Opinion

  • Acute kidney injury (AKI) is a common and potentially serious clinical complication that can be associated with poor outcomes and progression to chronic kidney disease. In this Perspectives article, Tögel and Westenfelder describe the preclinical data demonstrating the ability of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) to effectively improve outcome after AKI in experimental models and discuss the promising preliminary clinical data on MSC use in patients at risk of AKI.

    • Florian E. Tögel
    • Christof Westenfelder
    Opinion
Top of page ⤴

Search

Quick links