Erlinger Serge
University of Paris 7, 75013 Paris, France.
Clin Res Hepatol Gastroenterol. 2014 Sep;38(4):392-4. doi: 10.1016/j.clinre.2014.03.003. Epub 2014 Apr 14.
The elegant paper by Fickert et al. on bile duct ligated mice provides convincing evidence for the hypothesis that bile acids retained in the serum during cholestasis and excreted through the kidneys are toxic to collecting duct cells. The authors propose that bile acids initiate a chain of reactions leading to tubulointerstitial nephritis and fibrosis. Mice with cholestasis were protected by prefeeding with the hydrophilic bile acid norursodeoxycholic acid, an observation which suggests a potential therapeutic option for cholemic nephropathy.
