What is it about?
The liver and the kidneys play fundamental roles in the excretion of drugs and xenobiotics. When the bile duct is ligated, the liver excretory capacity is lowered. This causes some membrane transporters, including bilitranslocase, to increase their presence in the kidneys. This appears to be a compensation mechanism whereby the kidneys increase their excretory performance.
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Why is it important?
This result adds to analogous observations done with other drug transporters. There is liver-kidney cross-talk, presumably mediated by endogenous compounds, such as bile acids and pigments, so that the renal excretion increases its performance when that of the liver has declined.
Perspectives
This work is the result of a collaboration with prof. Adriana Monica Torres of the University of Rosario, Argentina.
Professor Sabina Passamonti
University of Trieste
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Expression of Kidney and Liver Bilitranslocase in Response to Acute Biliary Obstruction, Nephron Physiology, January 2010, Karger Publishers,
DOI: 10.1159/000276588.
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