Press Release No. 6
Berlin
Ischemic renal failure and organ damage: a new mouse model holds the key
Every year acute renal failure affects over 13 million people and leads to 1.7 million deaths across the globe.It often develops when an insufficient supply of oxygen reaches the kidneys, a condition called ischemia. Working with their colleagues from the MDC, the Charité and FMP in Berlin and Hannover Medical School, Dr Lajos Markó and Emilia Vigolo have traced one of the causes of ischemia-related renal failure to a signaling molecule called NF-κB and a specific type of tissue: tubular epithelial cells. Suppressing NF-κB signaling in these renal cells almost entirely eliminates the fatal tissue damage and inflammatory responses that accompany the disease.