ASN President Dr. Joseph V. Bonventre, MD, PhD, spoke at the American Diabetes Association's annual meeting, 71st Scientific Session, this June in San Diego. Dr. Bonventre was featured at a symposium entitled "New Concepts in Diagnosing and Treating Diabetic Nephropathy." The event was the first in a series of joint symposia to be presented by the American Society of Nephrology and the American Diabetes Association.
Dr. Bonventre discussed his research into the role of tubular dysfunction as it relates to diabetic nephropathy - kidney disease or damage that occurs as a complication of diabetes. "It may be that the kidney tubules are the primary place where diabetes has its earliest actions," said Dr. Bonventre. "After being filtered out of the blood by the glomeruli of the kidney, certain molecules in the tubular lumen can then be taken up by the tubular cells. They could then trigger a toxic response that ultimately results in disease in the kidney."
Also participating in the symposia were Lori M. Laffel, MD, MPH, chief of the pediatric, adolescent, and young adult section at the Joslin Diabetes Center; Bruce A. Perkins, MD, MPH, associate professor of endocrinology and metabolism at the University of Toronto; and Kumar Sharma, MD, director of the Center for Renal Translational Medicine at the University of California, San Diego. The panelists discussed research into biomarkers that could help predict which patients with diabetes will develop kidney disease, two new drugs that show promise for improving kidney function in patients with diabetic kidney disease, and controversies in the timing of dialysis and kidney transplantation in patients with progressive diabetic nephropathy.
The series of joint symposia was organized to help raise the visibility of diabetic kidney disease and improve its care and outcomes. The next symposia will take place at ASN's annual meeting, to be held in Philadelphia in November 2011l. "These discussions help to strengthen the ties between ASN and the American Diabetes Association," said Dr. Bonventre. "Ultimately we expect they will advance the prevention and treatment of diabetic nephropathy, as well as encourage more young investigators to enter this field."
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