The accumulation of phosphorus in the body causes undesirable effects in the cardiovascular system especially in patients with renal failure. A research team was able to normalize phosphorus in blood and link it with decrease levels of a hormone harmful to the heart. With medication and diet low in phosphorus patients present lower values of that hormone.

The hormone FGF23 (fibroblast growth factor 23) originates in the bone to communicate to the kidney that it must excrete excess phosphorus detected by the bone. Its main function is bone-kidney communication to eliminate phosphorus; but when it comes to a person with kidney failure and impaired excretion ability, this function is impaired.

In this scenario, however, the bone continues to produce FGF23 because it does not detect that the kidney has stopped functioning, so the hormone starts accumulating in the blood and this causes undesirable effects on other organs. For example, high amounts of this hormone affect the cardiovascular system, the heart is enlarged (hypertrophy) and this increases the risk of mortality.

For this reason, a research group composed of personnel from the Department of Medicine of the University of Córdoba, groups GC13 and GC07 of the Maimónides Institute of Biomedical Research of Córdoba (IMIBIC) and the Nephrology Unit of the Reina Sofia University Hospital are focused on how to lower the levels of FGF23.

After a clinical study in 21 patients on dialysis treatment that lasted 40 weeks, the researchers were able to see how the group of patients showed a normalization of phosphorus levels and produced a remarkable decrease in the hormone FGF23 by applying a diet reduced in phosphorus and a medication based on phosphorus scavengers, which prevent its absorption by the body. The effort to lower phosphorus levels reduced the concentration of FGF23 and decreased the risk of heart and circulatory problems.

Everything by its name

Another advance derived from this research directed by Cristian Rodelo Haad, with the participation of professors of Medicine of the UCO Mariano Rodríguez and Alejandro Martín-Malo, is the differentiation of two parts of the hormone: intact FGF23 (iFGF23) and FGF23 c terminal (c-FGF23).

In this investigation, which includes 150 patients, it is considered on the one hand the complete hormone (intact) and on the other the resulting parts of a fragmentation (c-terminal), since the final amount of these will depend on specific factors.

Although phosphorus is responsible for more than 60% of the values ​​of the molecule in both cases, the determinants of the intact hormone are phosphorus and calcium in blood, while for the c-terminal, the time that the patient has stays on dialysis and inflammation are factors that increase its concentration.

Once proven that with medication and diet low in phosphorus people who suffer from renal failure manage to lower the values ​​of FGF23 in their body, it only remains to study how this long-term reduction increases life expectancy.

 

Source: SINC