Cardiovascular Remodeling in Living Kidney Donors With Reduced Glomerular Filtration Rate

Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is highly frequent, and patients with advanced CKD are known to have a high risk of developing cardiovascular disease (CVD). However, little is known about the cardiovascular risk in patients with mildly reduced kidney function (reduced glomerular filtration rate, GFR), affecting up to 10% of the general population; and importantly, also affecting living kidney donors. Until recently it has been believed that donating a kidney does not represent any health hazard. However, a recent Norwegian epidemiological study suggested that kidney donors have an increased risk of CVD. The pathogenesis linking reduced kidney function to CVD is not known. Living kidney donors provide a unique model for investigating the mechanisms underlying increased risk of CVD in patients with reduced GFR because living kidney donors are healthy before donation. Thus, the main purpose of the Project is to investigate the mekanismes underlying the development of cardiovascular remodelling induced by a reduction in GFR.