Phosphate Depletion Mobilizes Bone Bicarbonate

What is it about?

The recent study by Hamid et al (1) demonstrates that dietary phosphate restriction in mice prevents the development metabolic acidosis, and reduces mortality, following AKI generated by intraperitoneal folic acid. The investigators mainly focused on the effects of dietary P restriction on FGF23. In 1977 we showed that dietary P restriction in rats mobilized bicarbonate from the skeleton and that this effect ameliorated the development of metabolic acidosis following bilateral nephrectomy. Inhibiting bone resorption with colchicine generated metabolic acidosis in the P depleted rats but not in control animals (2). The mobilization of skeletal HCO3 generated by dietary phosphate depletion should be specifically emphasized as a major reason metabolic acidosis does not develop after AKI in the Hamid et al study. _x000D_ _x000D_

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