When Sugar Damages Kidneys
April 2, 2012 Diabetes mellitus is one of the most common secondary diseases in modern society. And because it is on the rise, it is also one of the greatest challenges facing medicine today. Diabetes patients do not die as a direct result of the increase in blood sugar, but from the long-term complications of their disease, in which the increase in blood sugar causes damage to blood vessels and organs. Kidneys are particularly susceptible to damage, and this can lead to a loss in kidney function and the need to begin a dialysis treatment.
Prof. Dr. Tobias Huber is a kidney expert in the Nephrology Division of the University Medical Center Freiburg. With the support of the Cluster of Excellence BIOSS Centre for Biological Signalling Studies, Dr. Huber and his team were able to identify a signalling path that affects the progression of kidney disease in diabetes patients: mTOR is an important metabolic enzyme that controls similar functions in simple organisms, such as yeast and roundworms, as in humans; for example, it controls the growth and reproduction of cells. Diabetes causes the mTOR signalling path to become overactive, which can cause damage in highly specialized kidney cells.
Read More:
