Kidney News August 2011 3#8 : Page 1
August 2011 | Vol. 3, Number 8 Stem Cells Created from Adult Kidney Inside Cells May Help Combat Disease By Tracy Hampton that may help in the study of kidney dis-eases and the develop-ment of novel thera-pies to treat them. The findings could help millions of peo-ple with kidney dis-ease, many of whom experience progres-sion to end stage re-nal disease, which has only two treatment options: long-term dialysis or kidney transplantation. Ef-fective alternatives are urgently needed for these patients, given the poor quality of life associated with dialysis and the in-creasing organ transplant waiting lists. The study “Generation of induced pluripotent stem cells from human kidney mesangial cells” appears in the July issue of the Journal of the Ameri-can Society of Nephrolology . “This research is the stepping stone for the development of iPS cells from patients with kidney disease, particularly genetic kidney disease, which has an extraordinary potential for new drug discovery and person-alized medicine,” said senior author Sharon Ricardo, PhD, of Monash University in Clayton, Victoria, Aus-tralia. “It will enable researchers to understand kidney disease in a way they have never been able to before.” 6 Kidney cancer news Industry Spotlight 7 Social Media and Health Care Moving Medicine Forward 8 Reprogramming kidney cells Researchers have recently succeeded in reprogramming certain somatic cells to produce iPS cells. For exam-ple, pluripotent cells can be derived from mouse and human fibroblasts by the induced expression of four transcription factors (OCT4, SOX2, KLF4, and c-Myc), and iPS cell lines Bardoxolone shows promise, the kidney-heart link, and more from the European Renal Association-European Dialysis and Transplant Association Congress Findings R esearchers have genetically re-programmed adult human kid-ney cells to become induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells—a feat 12 Policy Update Continued on page 3 CMS proposes expanded Quality Improvement Program Recommendations Target Prevention of HIV Transmission to Transplant Recipients By Tracy Hampton n 2009, a kidney transplant recipi-ent in New York City received a kidney that was far from ideal—it carried HIV. Th e Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recently released the details of a public health investigation 14 Journal View AKI severity predicts CKD risk 16 Practice Pointers I Dyslipidemias in chronic kidney disease into the case, which revealed the fi rst confi rmed case of HIV transmission through organ transplantation from a living donor reported since 1989 and the fi rst such transmission documented in the United States since laboratory screening for HIV infection became available in 1985. Th e CDC’s recent Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report off ers recommendations to help prevent such a serious event from occurring in the future (http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/ preview/mmwrhtml/mm6010a1. htm?s_cid=mm6010a1_w). “Th e recent acquisition of HIV through living donor kidney transplan-tation is extremely unfortunate, both for the specifi c recipient, and perhaps for public confi dence in organ transplant safety more broadly,” said University of Continued on page 4
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