March 9th is World Kidney Day!
Today, in celebration of World Kidney Day, we would like to share with you a little bit about the campaigns history, as well as what the purpose of it is. World Kidney Day aims to raise awareness of the important role that the kidney plays, as well as reduce kidney disease and other related health problems. The campaign is an initiative run by the International Society of Nephrology (ISN) and the International Federation of Kidney Foundations – World Kidney Alliance (IFKF-WKA), where they host many different events around the world with the goal of increasing public understanding of how to prevent kidney disease, recognize its risk factors and live with it.
But, what kind of organ is the kidney?
The kidney’s main function is to separate waste products in the blood, such as excess salt, from the necessary ones, and then expel that waste from the body via urine. It also secretes hormones that regulate blood pressure and red blood cell production, and even plays an important role in helping the body maintain homeostasis.
Unfortunately, the number of patients with kidney disease, especially chronic kidney disease (CKD), is increasing all over the world. From 1990 to 2017, the percentage of deaths related to CKD increased by 41.5%, with the number of deaths due to CKD reaching 1.2 million in 2017. It is estimated that right now approximately 1 in 10 people have CKD (GBD Chronic Kidney Disease Collaboration. Lancet. 2020). Due to the great need for effective CKD treatments, many pharmaceutical companies are currently developing potential therapeutic candidates.
To aid in this process, we offer four different CKD models- the unilateral ureteral obstruction (UUO) model, Adriamycin model, Adenine model, and Folic acid model. While all four of these models can be used to develop therapeutic candidates for CKD, each one replicates a different pathology of the disease, meaning that our clients can choose the best model for their particular study.
As the UUO model’s study duration is only two weeks, it is a perfect for in vivo screening of antifibrotic drugs. For this reason, it is not only one of our most popular CKD models, but one of our most popular models over all.
If you would like more information about our models, or have any questions at all, please feel free to get in contact with us. We would love to hear from you!
►Learn more about World Kidney Day