Association between Nanobacteria and Urinary Calcium Stone Disease

Abstract

Purpose: Nanobacteria have been reported to induce various pathologic calcifications like atherosclerosis and nephrolithiasis, and they do so by forming an apatite envelope, however, this concept is still controversial. We tried to elucidate whether nanobacteria might be related with urinary calcium stone by performing comparative study. Materials and Methods: This study included 38 urinary stone patients who were proved to have calcium-containing stones and 37 healthy adults without urinary stone disease as controls. The subjects' age and gender were well matched between both groups. For the detection of nanobacteria, the serum and urine of all subjects were collected and western blotting for the samples was performed. Results: There was no significant difference in the positive rate of nanobacteria from the serum samples between stone and control groups (52.6% vs 48.6%, respectively, p=0.465). But on the urine samples, the stone group showed a significantly higher positive rate than the control group (71.1% vs 21.6%, respectively, p<0.05). Conclusions: Nanobacteria might have a relation with urinary calcium stone disease. (Korean J Urol 2007;48:512-516)