Role of the Renal Microcirculation in Progression of Chronic Kidney Injury in Obesity

Background: Obesity is largely responsible for the growing incidence and prevalence of diabetes, cardiovascular and renal diseases. Current strategies to prevent and treat obesity and its consequences have been insufficient to reverse the ongoing trends. Lifestyle modification or pharmacological therapies often produce modest weight loss which is not sustained and recurrence of obesity is frequently observed, leading to progression of target organ damage in many obese subjects. Therefore, research efforts have focused not only on the factors that regulate energy balance, but also on understanding mechanisms of target organ injury in obesity. Summary and Key Message: Microvascular (MV) disease plays a pivotal role in progressive kidney injury from different etiologies such as hypertension, diabetes, and atherosclerosis, which are all important consequences of chronic obesity. The MV networks are anatomical units that are closely adapted to specific functions of nutrition and removal of waste in every organ. Damage of the small vessels in several tissues and organs has been reported in obesity and may increase cardio-renal risk. However, the mechanisms by Published online: October 22, 2016 Nephrology American Journal of Prof. Alejandro R. Chade, MD, FAHA Department of Physiology and Biophysics, Department of Medicine Department of Radiology , University of Mississippi Medical Center 2500 North State Street, Jackson MS 39216-4505 (USA) E-Mail achade @ umc.edu © 2016 S. Karger AG, Basel 0250–8095/16/0445–0354$39.50/0