Chronic kidney disease (CKD) has both a clinical description (reduced kidney function and protein in the urine) and a pathological description (nephrosclerosis as characterized by glomerulosclerosis, tubular atrophy, interstitial fibrosis, and arteriosclerosis). Both occur with age, but little is known about their relationship to each other. The goal of this study is to characterize age-related changes in the kidney in a large sample of living kidney donors at two sites (Mayo Clinic and Cleveland Clinic), to identify biomarkers that predict these changes, and to eventually relate renal pathology and biomarkers that detect renal pathology to clinical outcomes in future studies. Combining computed tomography (CT) scan findings (total renal cortex volume) and renal biopsy findings (glomeruli per renal cortex unit volume) allows estimation of nephron endowment (total number of nephrons a person is born with). Our central hypothesis is that with aging, progressive nephrosclerosis leads to atrophy of nephrons with cortical volume loss and scarring. This volume loss is initially compensated by hypertrophy of viable nephrons, which leads to further nephrosclerosis. Eventually, however, volume loss from nephrosclerosis overwhelms the compensatory hypertrophy of remaining nephrons and the kidneys decrease in size.
Aim 1. To test the hypothesis that age, GFR, urine albumin, and CKD risk factors associate with A) macro- anatomy findings of decreased renal cortical volume and focal scarring on CT scan among adults undergoing a standardized evaluation for potential kidney donation (n=4300), and B) micro-anatomy findings of nephrosclerosis and nephron size on renal biopsy among adults who actually donate a kidney (n=2500), and furthermore, to determine if increased nephron endowment is protective against age-related nephrosclerosis and the increased size of viable nephrons.
Aim 2. To test the hypothesis that 10 novel serum and urine biomarkers for CKD (e.g., kidney injury molecule 1) associate with age-related changes A) in decreased renal cortical volume and focal scarring by CT scan (1500 potential donors) and B) in nephrosclerosis and nephron size by renal biopsy (1000 actual donors).
As adults age, some of the healthy tissue in the kidney is gradually replaced by scar tissue. We plan to determine whether clinical tests can detect these age-related changes in the kidney. This will improve our understanding of how chronic kidney disease develops in people as they age and eventually lead to better ways to diagnose, prevent, and treat chronic kidney disease.
| Chakkera, Harini A; Denic, Aleksandar; Kremers, Walter K et al. (2018) Comparison of high glomerular filtration rate thresholds for identifying hyperfiltration. Nephrol Dial Transplant : |
| Piras, Doloretta; Masala, Marco; Delitala, Alessandro et al. (2018) Kidney size in relation to ageing, gender, renal function, birthweight and chronic kidney disease risk factors in a general population. Nephrol Dial Transplant : |
| Denic, Aleksandar; Mathew, Jerry; Nagineni, Venkata V et al. (2018) Clinical and Pathology Findings Associate Consistently with Larger Glomerular Volume. J Am Soc Nephrol 29:1960-1969 |
| Hommos, Musab S; Zeng, Caihong; Liu, Zhihong et al. (2018) Global glomerulosclerosis with nephrotic syndrome; the clinical importance of age adjustment. Kidney Int 93:1175-1182 |
| Denic, Aleksandar; Lieske, John C; Chakkera, Harini A et al. (2017) The Substantial Loss of Nephrons in Healthy Human Kidneys with Aging. J Am Soc Nephrol 28:313-320 |
| Denic, Aleksandar; Mathew, Jerry; Lerman, Lilach O et al. (2017) Single-Nephron Glomerular Filtration Rate in Healthy Adults. N Engl J Med 376:2349-2357 |
| Hommos, Musab S; Glassock, Richard J; Rule, Andrew D (2017) Structural and Functional Changes in Human Kidneys with Healthy Aging. J Am Soc Nephrol 28:2838-2844 |
| Rule, Andrew D; Kremers, Walter K (2016) What Is the Correct Approach for Comparing GFR by Different Methods across Levels of GFR? Clin J Am Soc Nephrol 11:1518-21 |
| Delanaye, Pierre; Glassock, Richard J; Pottel, Hans et al. (2016) An Age-Calibrated Definition of Chronic Kidney Disease: Rationale and Benefits. Clin Biochem Rev 37:17-26 |
| Turco, Anne E; Lam, Wing; Rule, Andrew D et al. (2016) Specific renal parenchymal-derived urinary extracellular vesicles identify age-associated structural changes in living donor kidneys. J Extracell Vesicles 5:29642 |
Showing the most recent 10 out of 36 publications
