How damaged cells behave after acute kidney disease

New Delhi: A study provides new insights into how damaged cells interact with disease-affected microenvironments acute renal failure (seizure disorder).

Acute kidney injury (AKI), especially community-acquired acute kidney injury (CA-AKI), is a serious global health threat.

In countries like India, the International Society of Nephrology's slogan '0 to 25', which aims to reduce unnecessary deaths from acute kidney failure to zero by 2025, is not achievable. This is probably due to a lack of information and action to address this pressing public health problem. This is especially true in developing countries, which struggle with the most basic needs due to factors such as low GDP, income disparity, limited access to resources, etc.

A study using a cutting-edge tool called seqFISH, developed by the University of South California and Caltech, has found that over 1,000 genes can be analyzed in damaged kidney tissue. The researchers identified microenvironments associated with injury and predicted cellular interactions associated with the development of chronic kidney disease (CKD). This could help identify targets to prevent kidney failure and CKD.

Scientists have identified a pathological microenvironment in the outermost layer of the kidney, which they called “ME-5.” It contains a proximal tubule cell (PT)—the cell that filters waste products from the blood and is located in the kidneys, where it is vulnerable to injury.

In ME-5, injured PTs and fibroblasts exchange signals that promote inflammation and fibrosis.

Another injury-related microenvironment called “ME-16” contains tertiary lymphatic structures – a place in the body where immune cells congregate to fight disease. This contributes to chronic inflammation that spreads throughout the injured organ, worsening the patient’s condition because the inflammation does not stay in one place but spreads to other organs in the area, weakening the patient’s condition even further.

We are excited that technological advances have made it possible to understand kidney disease and injury at a deeper level. This study shows the value of interdisciplinary and cross-institutional collaboration in advancing biomedical research, although more experiments like this will help establish this as a reliable treatment, noted Dr. Long Cai, professor of biology and bioengineering at Caltech.