Role of Uremic Toxins and Oxidative Stress in Chronic Kidney Disease

Abstract

The kidney plays important roles in the elimination of toxic metabolites from the body. Such substances accumulate in the serum in conjunction with the decline of kidney function, thus they have been called “uremic toxins”. We currently have a long list of uremic toxins chemically identified (1). The roles of some specific toxins have been intensively investigated, especially in the development of systemic complications and survival of patients with chronic kidney disease (2). It has also been recognized that enhanced oxidative stress results in several abnormalities in chronic kidney disease, as well as in diabetes, some of which are suspected to be linked to specific toxins (3). It is our great pleasure to provide here a collection of selected presentations from an International Symposium entitled “Uremic Toxins and Oxidative Stress in Dialysis Patients” at the 55 Annual Meeting of the Japanese Society for Dialysis Therapy held on 18–20 June 2010 in Kobe, Japan.We hope that further elucidation of pathogenetic mechanisms in this field will lead to the development of new therapeutic modalities, resulting in better survival of chronic kidney disease patients (4).