The Role of 20-HETE in Ischemic Acute Renal Failure

Project Description Narrative:

It has long been known that developing acute renal failure (ARF) has a major effect on reducing the survival of hospitalized patients, especially those with cardiovascular disease. Despite advances in dialysis therapy, the poor survival associated with acute renal failure has not improved. Recent animal studies have confirmed clinical suspicions that ischemia induced acute renal failure alone has detrimental system effects separate from merely complicating the care of a very ill patient. Specifically, measurable injury and impairment of pulmonary and cardiac function are found following isolated, ischemia induced ARF. Furthermore, it has long been known that early ischemic ARF, called primary graft non-function, substantially increases the risk of rejection and reduces the survival of transplanted kidneys. Since end-stage renal disease, requiring dialysis and transplantation, is dramatically increasing in Wisconsin, as elsewhere, the negative impact of ARF on survival of kidney transplants will progressively and substantially impair the long-term health and increase the cost of providing care to patients with end-stage renal disease in Wisconsin.

This project seeks to find novel mediators of resistance and susceptibility to ischemia-induced ARF.