It is already known that the coronavirus can cause considerable damage in the body and that the kidneys are also a victim of the virus. But experts were not yet sure exactly what the virus does and how much damage it causes. Lead researcher Jitske Jansen of Radboudumc: “With this study, we have delved deeply into the cause of kidney damage caused by a covid infection.”
Severe renal failure
In the study, published in Cell Stem Cell, the researchers looked at the kidney tissue of deceased Covid patients admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU). The tissue contained a lot of scar tissue, more than in patients with a non-covid respiratory infection in the ICU or in a healthy control group. “Scar tissue can lead to reduced kidney function, and in the worst case, severe kidney failure,” according to the Nijmegen umc.
Mini kidneys from the lab
What caused the kidney damage – the virus itself or a violent inflammatory response of the immune system – was the next question for the researchers. For more insight, the researchers grew tiny mini kidneys in the lab, kidney organoids. They infected these mini-kidneys with the covid virus to investigate the direct effects of the virus on the kidney cells. Here too, as with the patients’ kidney tissue, the researchers saw more scar tissue and signals that lead to the development of scar tissue.
New puzzle piece
The findings of the Dutch and German researchers are in line with the results of a large American research, in which the researchers saw that kidney function decreases due to an infection with the corona virus. People who contracted a corona infection with mild symptoms had a 15 percent higher risk of developing serious kidney problems than people who were not affected by the virus. As a result, patients may end up on dialysis.
According to lead researcher Jansen, the most recent research has shown that kidney damage is caused by the covid virus itself, not just by an overreaction of the immune system. “With this we have a new piece of the puzzle showing what direct damage the coronavirus can do in the body.”
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