Metabolic syndrome describes a set of symptoms that increases the risk of Type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and stroke. Those risk factors are:

• high blood pressure
• obesity, particularly extra weight around the waist
• insulin resistance
• low good cholesterol
• higher levels of triglycerides

Patients are diagnosed with metabolic syndrome when they have 3 or more of these symptoms.

There have been a number of interesting discoveries about metabolic syndrome in the news lately. Scientists have found a link between metabolic syndrome and kidney disease which could lead to early interventions to prevent the syndrome as well as diabetes and kidney disease. – Metabolic Syndrome May Cause Kidney Disease

Researchers from the Gladstone Institutes have discovered how a gene called SIRT3 increases the risk of metabolic syndrome. – Gene That Exacerbates Risk Factors for Heart Disease and Diabetes Identified

Metabolic syndrome is also associated with increased incidence of kidney stones. An article from Internal Medicine News provides some insight into statistics and a possible cause for kidney stones in obese individuals. – Kidney Stones Linked to CVD, Metabolic Syndrome

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Researchers at Johns Hopkins have discovered that, contrary to long-held beliefs, not all African American dialysis patients fare as well as their white counterparts. After studying 1.3 million ESRD patients, they found that young African Americans under 50 actually do much worse. The news comes as a surprise because earlier studies had never analyzed outcomes based on age. The new study shows that African Americans over 50 still do have a slight advantage over white patients. However, according to Johns Hopkins, African Americans “…between the ages of 18 and 30 are twice as likely to die on dialysis than their white counterparts; and those ages 31 to 40 are 1.5 times as likely to die.” The researchers believe that the disparity could be due to a lack of access to healthcare or poor healthcare in the early stages of CKD, or perhaps a physiological reason involving high blood pressure, which is very common in the African American community. They hope that this study will change the way young African American patients are counseled regarding the importance of transplantation and that it will lead to more kidney transplants for these patients.

Source:

Conventional Wisdom Unwise: Study Shows Young Black Patients on Kidney Dialysis Do Much Worse—Not Better—Than White Counterparts, Johns Hopkins Medicine, August 9, 2011

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Researchers at Stanford University School of Medicine have identified a drug called STF-31 that starves and kills some kidney cancer cells by cutting off their energy supply of glucose. STF-31 works by binding to a particular glucose transporter. Testing in mice inhibited glucose transport by about half and resulted in slowed tumor growth with limited side effects and no negative impact on the brain, which also uses glucose for fuel. STF-31 may prove effective in fighting other cancers which require the same glucose transporter for energy production.

Source:

Potential Anti-Cancer Therapy That Starves Cancer Cells of Glucose Identified, ScienceDaily, August 4, 2011

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A team of nephrologists and researchers at University of Miami Miller School of Medicine have discovered a factor in the blood that may be responsible for up to two-thirds of the cases of focal segmental glomerulosclerosis or FSGS. They found that an excess of serum soluble urokinase receptor (suPAR) activates a protein in the kidney podocytes called ß3 integrin. The podocytes, which serve as a filtration barrier, begin to move and allow protein to pass into the urine. The process leads to breakdown and fusing of the podocytes, impaired filtration, and glomerular scarring. The scientists found that many patients with FSGS have elevated levels of suPAR in the blood. Therapies to reduce suPAR levels or stop the suPAR-ß3 interaction could prove beneficial. Tests for suPAR levels in the blood could also identify patients at risk of developing recurring FSGS after kidney transplantation.

Source:

Nephrologists Discover Cause of Common Kidney Disease, University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, July 31, 2011

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