The role of labile iron in kidney disease and treatment with chelation.

There are two major forms of kidney disease: acute renal failure [also referred to as acute kidney injury (AKI)] and chronic kidney disease (CKD). Acute renal failure is an abrupt loss of kidney function within 48 h, whereas CKD is a loss of kidney function greater than 3 months. There is a large amount of experimental evidence for an increase of labile iron in a wide variety of models of kidney disease. Additionally, iron chelators provide protection, indicating an important role of labile iron in these diseases. These observations suggest that iron chelators may provide a new modality of prevention and treatment of kidney disease.