Diabetic kidney disease likely results from defective insulin signaling in the kidneys, contradicting long-standing suspicions, according to findings appearing online today (October 5) in Cell Metabolism.
Scientists have long attributed this type of kidney disease -- the leading cause of renal failure -- to high glucose levels in the blood and defects in the kidney microvasculature.The study "suggests there's a direct effect of insulin" on epithelial cells in the kidney, "which is really a new idea," said nephrologist linkurl:Thomas Coffman;http://medicine.duke.edu/faculty/details/0117590 of Duke University School of Medicine, who was not involved in the research. "I'm sure it will be a highly cited paper."Diabetes causes numerous health problems, including a form of kidney disease known as diabetic nephropathy (DN). DN is characterized by protein in the urine, enlarged kidneys, and abnormalities in the glomeruli, specialized...
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in a case of diabetic nephropathy. Image: Wikimedia commons, Doc.mari |
The ScientistThe ScientistG.I. Welsh, et al., "Insulin signaling to the glomerular podocyte is critical for normal kidney function," Cell Metabolism, 12:329-40, 2010.
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