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How a Low-Protein Diet Can Delay Dialysis in Patients With Chronic Kidney Disease

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At any given time, an estimated 15% of the US adult population has chronic kidney disease (CKD). It manifests as reduced kidney function to below 60% of its normal range (estimated glomerular filtration rate < 60 mL/min/1.73 m2) or by spillage of protein into the urine. The many causes of CKD include diabetes, hypertension, glomerulonephritis, and cystic kidney diseases. CKD is an irreversible malady with no known cure, and it invariably worsens over time. CKD is associated with higher mortality risks as it advances. If the patient does not die of cardiovascular or infectious events, end-stage renal disease ensues and the patient requires maintenance dialysis therapy or kidney transplantation to survive.

Each year, 130,000 Americans transition to dialysis, which is not only costly but also associated with poor health-related quality of life and an early mortality of more than 20% in the first year. Hence, slowing CKD progression and preventing or delaying dialysis can have major favorable implications for CKD outcomes. Read more.

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Creating ‘universal’ transplant organs: New study moves us one step closer.

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Scientists successfully converted donated lungs into “universal” transplant organs in a proof-of-concept experiment. That means, theoretically, the lungs could be transplanted into any recipient, regardless of their blood type, as long as the organs were the appropriate size. 

In the new study, published Wednesday (Feb. 16) in the journal Science Translational Medicine, the researchers ran experiments on the universal lungs in an ex vivo lung perfusion (EVLP) device, which keeps lungs alive outside the body. Within the next year-and-a-half, the study authors plan to test such organs in a clinical trial with human recipients, Dr. Marcelo Cypel, the surgical director of the Ajmera Transplant Centre, a professor of surgery at the University of Toronto and senior author of the study, told Live Science. Read the full story.

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Pioneering protocol could enable transplant recipients to thrive without antirejection drugs

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Performing human-organ transplants without the necessity for a lifetime regimen of immunosuppressive drugs has been an enduring goal for transplantation medicine.

Now, a new protocol being implemented at UCLA Health with select living-donor kidney-transplant patients is bringing that dream closer to reality.

“It is the Holy Grail,” says renal transplant surgeon Jeffrey Veale, MD, who has led the pioneering effort to develop the protocol. Read more.

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Act of kindness: Former college roommate to donate part of his liver to save his friend

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The college roommates had not seen each other in 21 years. But when Steven Robinson realized on a family trip to Detroit that he was within driving distance of Richard Koonce, he called his friend to ask if he could visit. 

Koonce had introduced Robinson to his wife, Natalie, when they all attended Norfolk State University, a historically Black college in Virginia. When his old friend reached out he welcomed the couple and their three children to his home in Sandusky, Ohio, last summer.
Read the full story.

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Top 10 Tips for Reducing Salt in Your Diet

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When it comes to dietary sodium, less is certainly best, yet Americans today consume 50% more than the recommended daily quantities of sodium. Diets high in sodium increase blood pressure levels. High blood pressure damages the kidneys over time, and is a leading cause of kidney failure.  

To help Americans reduce salt intake to the ideal one teaspoon per day, the National Kidney Foundation and Council of Renal Nutrition member Linda Ulrich offer 10 tips to reduce sodium in your diet. Read more.

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Researchers report third case of HIV remission after stem cell transplant using umbilical cord blood

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(CNN)A US woman has become the third known person who’s gone into HIV remission, and the first mixed-race woman, thanks to a transplant of stem cells from umbilical cord blood, according to research presented at a conference Tuesday.

The woman, whom the researchers described as middle-aged and of mixed race, was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia four years after an HIV diagnosis, according to an abstract from the Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections.
Read the full story.

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Groundbreaking Heart-Lung Procedure Gives Toddler a Chance at a Full Life

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Stanford heart team combines two highly complex specialties in a novel PARplant procedure

Santana Renchie takes on life as if she knows—at the tender age of 2—that she’s lucky to be alive. She’s sassy, full of joy, and determined to not miss a single moment of fun.

“There’s nothing stopping her. She’s relentless. If she wants something, she just goes for it,” says her dad, Sebron. Read the full story.

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Gene Pierce – The Legacy of an Organ Donation, Transportation, and Transplantation Pioneer

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60 years ago, Gene Pierce was a Sunday school teacher and Boy Scout troop leader in his free time. For his day job, he worked in the marketing department at Chesapeake Pulp and Paper Mill in West Point, Virginia—where he was instrumental in developing Green Life Fertilizer.1

When Gene found out that he and his wife were expanding their family to five children, he realized he needed to make a little more money. There happened to be two job openings at the time that interested him: One at the railroad company and the other at Medical College of Virginia (MCV). Read the full story.

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