segunda-feira, 20 de abril de 2015

Alzheimer's Disease and Parkinson's 

Disease

Robert L. Nussbaum, M.D., and Christopher E. Ellis, Ph.D.
Alan E. Guttmacher, M.D., Editor, Francis S. Collins, M.D., Ph.D., Editor
The incidence of many common diseases is increased among the relatives of affected patients, but the pattern of inheritance rarely follows Mendel's laws. Instead, such common diseases are thought to result from a complex interaction among multiple predisposing genes and other factors, including environmental contributions and chance occurrences. Identifying the genetic contribution to such complex diseases is a major challenge for genomic medicine. However, as so clearly foreseen nearly 350 years ago by the English physiologist William Harvey,1 finding the genetic basis for rarer, mendelian forms of a disease may illuminate the etiologic process and pathogenesis of the more common, complex forms. This is illustrated in the progress made in understanding Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease through the investigation of the rare, clearly inherited forms of these diseases. The molecular basis of neurodegenerative disorders was reviewed in theJournal in 1999.2

ALZHEIMER'S DISEASE


The most common neurodegenerative disease, Alzheimer's disease constitutes about two thirds of cases of dementia overall (ranging in various studies from 42 to 81 percent of all dementias), with vascular causes and other neurodegenerative diseases such as Pick's disease and diffuse Lewy-body dementia making up the majority of the remaining cases.3,4
Alzheimer's disease is a progressive neurologic disease that results in the irreversible loss of neurons, particularly in the cortex and hippocampus.5 The clinical hallmarks are progressive impairment in memory, judgment, decision making, orientation to physical surroundings, and language. Diagnosis is based on neurologic examination and the exclusion of other causes of dementia; a definitive diagnosis can be made only at autopsy. The pathological hallmarks are neuronal loss, extracellular senile plaques containing the peptide β amyloid, and neurofibrillary tangles; the latter are composed of a hyperphosphorylated form of the microtubular protein tau.6Amyloid in senile plaques is the product of cleavage of a much larger protein, the β-amyloid precursor protein, by a series of proteases, the α-, β-, and γ-secretases.7 The γ-secretase, in particular, appears to be responsible for generating one particular β-amyloid peptide — Aβ42 — that is 42 amino acids in length and has pathogenetic importance, because it can form insoluble toxic fibrils and accumulates in the senile plaques isolated from the brains of patients with Alzheimer's disease.8,9
Measures of the prevalence of Alzheimer's disease differ depending on the diagnostic criteria used, the age of the population surveyed, and other factors, including geography and ethnicity.10,11Excluding persons with clinically questionable dementia, Alzheimer's disease has a prevalence of approximately 1 percent among those 65 to 69 years of age and increases with age to 40 to 50 percent among persons 95 years of age and over10 (Figure 1FIGURE 1Prevalence of Alzheimer's Disease as a Function of Age in Men and Women.). Although the mean age at the onset of dementia is approximately 80 years,3 early-onset disease, defined arbitrarily and variously as the illness occurring before the age of 60 to 65 years, can occur but is rare. In one community-based study in France, the prevalence of early-onset disease (defined by an onset before the age of 61 years) was 41 per 100,000; thus, early-onset cases make up about 6 to 7 percent of all cases of Alzheimer's disease.12 About 7 percent of early-onset cases are familial, with an autosomal dominant pattern of inheritance and high penetrance.12 Thus, familial forms of early-onset Alzheimer's disease, inherited in an autosomal dominant manner, are rare; however, their importance extends far beyond their frequency, because they have allowed researchers to identify some of the critical pathogenetic pathways of the disease.
Missense mutations that alter a single amino acid and therefore gene function have been identified in three genes in families with early-onset autosomal dominant Alzheimer's disease. Family linkage studies and DNA sequencing identified mutations responsible for early-onset autosomal dominant forms of the disease in the gene encoding β-amyloid precursor protein itself on chromosome 21 (Figure 2FIGURE 2Altered Amino Acid Residues in a Segment of the β-Amyloid Precursor Protein Adjacent to Its Transmembrane Domain Resulting from Missense Mutations and Causing Early-Onset Familial Alzheimer's Disease.), as well as in two genes with similarity to each other, presenilin 1 (PSEN1) on chromosome 14 and presenilin 2 (PSEN2) on chromosome 1.PSEN1 mutations are more common than PSEN2 mutations. In a study of French families, for example, half of patients with familial, early-onset Alzheimer's disease that was inherited as an autosomal dominant trait had mutations in PSEN1, whereas approximately 16 percent of families had mutations in the β-amyloid precursor protein (βAPP) gene itself.12 PSEN2mutations were not found, and the genes responsible for the remaining 30 percent or so of cases were unknown.
The presenilin and βAPP mutations found in patients with familial early-onset Alzheimer's disease appear to result in the increased production of Aβ42, which is probably the primary neurotoxic species involved in the pathogenesis of the disease7,13 (Figure 3FIGURE 3The Normal Processing of β-Amyloid Precursor Protein as Well as the Effect on Processing of Alterations in the Protein Resulting from Missense Mutations Associated with Early-Onset Familial Alzheimer's Disease.). In these forms of Alzheimer's disease, mutations in βAPP itself or in the presenilins can shift the cleavage site to favor the γ-secretase site14 and, in particular, to favor increased production of the toxic Aβ42 peptide over the shorter, less toxic Aβ40peptide. Presenilin 1 may in fact be the γ-secretase itself or a necessary cofactor in γ-secretase activity.15 The toxic peptide is increased in the serum of patients with various βAPP, PSEN1, and PSEN2 mutations causing early-onset Alzheimer's disease.16 Cultured cells transfected in order to express the normal β-amyloid precursor protein generally process approximately 10 percent of the protein into the toxic Aβ42 peptide. Expression of various mutant βAPP or PSEN1 genes associated with early-onset familial Alzheimer's disease can result in an increase in the production of Aβ42 by a factor of up to 10.17-19 The identification of mutations in βAPP and the presenilins in early-onset familial Alzheimer's disease not only suggests a common mechanism through which mutations in these genes may exert their deleterious effects (i.e., increased production or decreased clearance of Aβ42 and formation of a protein aggregate, the amyloid plaque) but also provides evidence of a direct role of the Aβ42peptide and presenilins in the pathogenesis of the disease.20 In contrast, mutations in the tau gene, which encodes a protein contained within another neuropathologic structure in Alzheimer's disease, the neurofibrillary tangle, have not been identified in families with hereditary Alzheimer's disease, although they are seen in another, rarer neurodegenerative disorder, frontotemporal degeneration with parkinsonism21,22 (Figure 3).
As important as the rare familial early-onset forms of Alzheimer's disease have been for understanding the pathogenesis of the disease, the majority of patients of any age have sporadic (nonfamilial) disease in which no mutation in the βAPP or presenilin genes has been identified. However, another genetic risk factor, variants of APOE, the gene that encodes apolipoprotein E, a constituent of the low-density lipoprotein particle, has been associated with Alzheimer's disease.23Three variants of the gene and the protein are found in human populations and result from changes in single amino acids in apolipoprotein E (referred to as the APOE ε2, ε3, and ε4 alleles). Carrying one APOE ε4 allele nearly doubles the lifetime risk of Alzheimer's disease (from 15 percent to 29 percent), whereas not carrying an APOE ε4 allele cuts the risk by 40 percent.24 Initially, survival curves analyzing the effect of the APOE ε4 allele on the occurrence of Alzheimer's disease suggested that 70 to 90 percent of persons without this allele were disease-free at the age of 80 years, whereas 30 to 60 percent of those with one APOE ε4 allele and only 10 percent of homozygous persons surviving to the age of 80 were disease-free.23 A more recent study also provided evidence that APOE ε4 has a role in Alzheimer's disease, but the effect was less marked, with the rate of disease-free survival as high as 70 percent in homozygous persons.25
Although the magnitude of the effect of the APOE ε4 allele differs among studies, there appears to be a dose effect, in that disease-free survival was lower in homozygous persons than in heterozygous persons. This observation has led to the conclusion that the primary effect of theAPOE ε4 allele is to shift the age at onset an average of approximately 5 to 10 years earlier in the presence of one allele and 10 to 20 years earlier in the presence of two alleles in persons with an underlying susceptibility to Alzheimer's disease.26 The molecular mechanisms by which the various APOE alleles alter the age at onset and, therefore, the lifetime risk of Alzheimer's disease are unknown. A number of associations of the disease with variants of genes other than APOEhave also been reported but remain to be confirmed and are the subject of ongoing research.27
Because of the relative rarity of βAPP, PSEN1, and PSEN2 mutations in patients with late-onset Alzheimer's disease, we believe that molecular testing for mutations in these genes should be restricted to those with an elevated probability of having such mutations — that is, persons with early-onset disease or a family history of the disease. At-risk, symptomatic relatives of persons with documented mutations in βAPP or one of the presenilins may also request testing for the purposes of family, financial, or personal planning. Testing of a presymptomatic person should be undertaken with extreme care and only after extensive pretest counseling, so that the person requesting the test is aware of the potential for severe psychological complications of testing positive for an incurable, devastating illness. There may also be serious ramifications in the area of employment and in obtaining life, long-term care, disability, or health insurance. Also important is that a positive test may indicate that other family members, who may not have participated in any counseling or consented to testing, will be identified as being at a substantially increased risk for early-onset Alzheimer's disease by virtue of their relationship to the person who tests positive.
The usefulness of testing for the APOE ε4 allele is also limited. Finding one or two APOE ε4 alleles in a symptomatic person with dementia certainly increases the likelihood that one is dealing with Alzheimer's disease and might be used as an adjunct to clinical diagnosis.28 On the other hand, since 50 percent of patients with autopsy-proved Alzheimer's disease did not carry an APOEε4 allele, its negative predictive value in a symptomatic person is very limited.24 APOE ε4 testing in asymptomatic persons has very poor positive and negative predictive values and should not be used.24
Insights derived from the identification of mutations in rare families with early-onset Alzheimer's disease are proving useful for identifying therapeutic targets and creating animal models for evaluating therapies.29 For example, β-secretase inhibitors have been developed and may prove useful in treating Alzheimer's disease by reducing Aβ42 production.30 Transgenic mice expressing mutant β-amyloid precursor protein have an age-dependent increase in the amount of Aβ42formation, increased plaque formation, and spatial memory deficits; they have, however, only a minimal loss of neurons.31 In addition, mice transgenic for both a βAPP and a PSEN1 mutation show accelerated deposition of Aβ42, as compared with mice expressing either transgene alone.32In transgenic mice with a mutant β-amyloid precursor protein, immunization with Aβ42 resulted in a decrease in plaque formation and an amelioration of memory loss.32-34 However, phase 2 clinical trials investigating immunization therapy with Aβ42 35 had to be suspended because of an increased risk of aseptic meningoencephalitis.35-37 In addition, other drugs such as statins, clioquinol, and certain nonsteroidal antiinflammatory drugs38 are being evaluated in mouse models of these rare, heritable forms of Alzheimer's disease.

PARKINSON'S DISEASE


Parkinson's disease is the second most common neurodegenerative disorder, after Alzheimer's disease. It is characterized clinically by parkinsonism (resting tremor, bradykinesia, rigidity, and postural instability)39 and pathologically by the loss of neurons in the substantia nigra and elsewhere in association with the presence of ubiquinated protein deposits in the cytoplasm of neurons (Lewy bodies)40,41 and thread-like proteinaceous inclusions within neurites (Lewy neurites). Parkinson's disease has a prevalence of approximately 0.5 to 1 percent among persons 65 to 69 years of age, rising to 1 to 3 percent among persons 80 years of age and older.42 The diagnosis is made clinically, although other disorders with prominent symptoms and signs of parkinsonism, such as postencephalitic, drug-induced, and arteriosclerotic parkinsonism, may be confused with Parkinson's disease until the diagnosis is confirmed at autopsy.43
A genetic component in Parkinson's disease was long thought to be unlikely, because most patients had sporadic disease and initial studies of twins showed equally low rates of concordance in monozygotic and dizygotic twins.44 The view that genetics was involved in some forms of Parkinson's disease was strengthened, however, by the observation that monozygotic twins with an onset of disease before the age of 50 years do have a very high rate of concordance — much higher than that of dizygotic twins with early-onset disease.44,45 Furthermore, regardless of the age at onset, the apparent rate of concordance among monozygotic twins can be significantly increased if abnormal striatial dopaminergic uptake in the asymptomatic twin of a discordant pair, as revealed by positron-emission tomography with fluorodopa F18, is used as a sign of presymptomatic Parkinson's disease.46,47 An increased risk of Parkinson's disease was also seen among the first-degree relatives of patients,48,49 particularly when the results of positron-emission tomography of asymptomatic relatives were taken into account,50 providing further evidence of the existence of a genetic component to the disease.
However, the real advance occurred when a small number of families with early-onset, Lewy-body–positive autosomal dominant Parkinson's disease were identified.51 Investigation of these families, of Mediterranean and German origin, led to the identification of two missense mutations (Ala53Thr and Ala30Pro) in the gene encoding α-synuclein, a small presynaptic protein of unknown function.52,53 Although mutations in α-synuclein have proved to be extremely rare in patients with Parkinson's disease, they did provide the first clue that this protein could be involved in the molecular chain of events leading to the disease. The importance of α-synuclein was greatly enhanced by the discovery that the Lewy bodies and Lewy neurites found in Parkinson's disease in general contain aggregates of α-synuclein54,55 (Figure 4FIGURE 4Immunohistochemical Analysis of Sections from the Substantia Nigra of a Patient with Sporadic Parkinson's Disease, Indicating the Involvement of α-Synuclein in the Formation of Lewy Bodies and Lewy Neurites.). Molecules of α-synuclein protein are prone to form into oligomers in vitro; proteins carrying the missense mutations Ala53Thr and Ala30Pro seem to be even more prone to do so.56
Although the study of families with early-onset Parkinson's disease proves that abnormal α-synuclein can cause the disease, it is still unclear whether fibrils of aggregated α-synuclein, as seen in Lewy bodies and Lewy neurites, have a critical causative role in the more common forms of Parkinson's disease or are simply a marker for the underlying pathogenetic process. Lewy bodies positive for α-synuclein are found not only in various subnuclei of the substantia nigra, the locus ceruleus, and other brain-stem and thalamic nuclei of patients with Parkinson's disease, but also in a more diffuse distribution, including the cortex in some patients with Parkinson's disease as well as in patients with dementia of the diffuse Lewy-body type.57,58 Aggregated α-synuclein in glia is also a feature of multiple-system atrophy,59 leading to the coining of a new nosologic term, “synucleinopathy,” to refer to the class of neurodegenerative diseases associated with aggregated α-synuclein.60
Autosomal recessive juvenile parkinsonism is another genetic neurologic syndrome that has provided important insights into Parkinson's disease. Autosomal recessive juvenile parkinsonism is a relatively rare syndrome that shares many of the features of parkinsonism, including responsiveness to levodopa and loss of nigrostriatal and locus ceruleus neurons, but it has a very early onset (before the age of 40 years), a slow clinical course extending over many decades, and no Lewy bodies or Lewy neurites at autopsy.61 Genetic mapping of the syndrome to 6q25–27 led to the identification of mutations responsible for autosomal recessive juvenile parkinsonism in a gene encoding a protein termed parkin.62 Parkin is expressed primarily in the nervous system and is one member of a family of proteins known as E3 ubiquitin ligases, which attach short ubiquitin peptide chains to proteins, a process termed ubiquination, thereby tagging them for degradation through the proteosomal degradation pathway.
Autosomal recessive juvenile parkinsonism results from a loss of function of both copies of the parkin gene,63-65 leading to autosomal recessive inheritance, as opposed to the missense mutations that alter α-synuclein and cause a dominantly inherited disorder. More recently, however, the spectrum of disease known to be caused by parkin mutations has broadened, with apparently sporadic Parkinson's disease occurring in adulthood, as late as in the fifth and sixth decades of life, in association with parkin gene mutations.66 There have even been a few patients with apparently classic sporadic Parkinson's disease with an onset in adulthood who appear to have only one mutant parkin allele, although an exhaustive demonstration that the other allele is truly normal and not harboring an unusual mutation outside the coding sequence and its immediate environs is still lacking. Precisely what role parkin mutations have in the majority of cases of Parkinson's disease and whether the heterozygous state (which is far more common in the population than is homozygosity for two mutant alleles) represents an important risk factor remain to be established.
Recent evidence suggests that ubiquination by parkin may be important in the normal turnover of α-synuclein.67 Also of interest is the finding in one family of a few members with Parkinson's disease who had a deleterious missense mutation in the gene encoding a neuron-specific C-terminal ubiquitin hydrolase, another gene involved in ubiquitin metabolism.68 The obvious inference from these disparate pieces of data is that aggregation of abnormal proteins, dysfunctional ubiquitin-mediated degradation machinery, or both may be important steps in the pathogenesis of Parkinson's disease.
In addition to the α-synuclein, parkin, and ubiquitin C-hydrolase genes, at least five other loci have been proposed for autosomal dominant69-71 and autosomal recessive72-74 Parkinson's disease (Table 1TABLE 1Mutations in Single Genes That Lead to Parkinson's Disease.). Genetic analysis of the more common, sporadic forms of Parkinson's disease suggests that there is a component of heritability in the forms that are not clearly inherited as autosomal dominant or recessive traits.75-78 For example, certain alleles at a complex DNA-repeat polymorphic locus approximately 10 kilobase pairs upstream of the α-synuclein gene have been shown to be associated with sporadic Parkinson's disease in some populations, but not in others.79-82 Positive identification of the genes at these loci is likely to provide additional genes and proteins that can be studied for their roles in the pathogenesis of the disease.
Because of the extreme rarity of α-synuclein mutations, genetic testing for these mutations should be performed only on a research basis when a strong family history of autosomal dominant Parkinson's disease is present. Homozygous parkin mutations are found in the nearly half of patients presenting with apparent Parkinson's disease in childhood and adolescence and perhaps 5 percent of young adults with Parkinson's disease.64 There is little evidence supporting a role for mutations in the parkin gene in typical late-onset Parkinson's disease, and neither α-synuclein nor parkin gene testing is currently available as a routine clinical service.


CONCLUSIONS

The common neurodegenerative diseases are predominantly idiopathic disorders of unknown pathogenesis. As the examples of Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease demonstrate, however, the genetic mapping and gene-isolation tools created by the Human Genome Project over the past decade have greatly accelerated the rate of identification of genes involved in the rare inherited forms of these diseases and are now being used to determine the genetic contributions to the more common, multifactorial forms of these diseases. The emergence of a consensus hypothesis — aggregates of Aβ42 and α-synuclein are neurotoxic in Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease, respectively — may explain the pathogenesis not only of the inherited forms of these diseases but also of the idiopathic variety. Such insights into causation and pathogenesis are helping to identify new treatment targets for these debilitating disorders.
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The biological consequence of obesity on the kidney

  1. Daisuke Koya

Abstract

Obesity is a worldwide epidemic that is associated with several health issues, including kidney diseases. A specific kidney disease, referred to as obesity-related glomerulopathy, has been described in earlier publications. Obesity can affect the prognosis of other types of kidney diseases. Body-weight reduction with caloric restriction is an essential therapy, although strictly controlling food intake coupled with an appropriate evaluation is challenging. Low birthweight can be an important factor for obesity and results in kidney dysfunction. In this review, we analyse the consequences of obesity on kidney prognosis and potential strategies for combating obesity-associated kidney injury.

Key words

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INTRODUCTION

Obesity, defined as a body mass index (BMI) of > 30 kg/m2, is a significant worldwide health epidemic [1]. The World Health Organization estimates that of more than 1 billion overweight adults, at least 300 million people are obese. Changes in our socioeconomic environment and the worldwide nutrition transition have been hypothesized as drivers of the obesity epidemic in recent decades. Modernization, urbanization and globalization of food markets are several contributors to the obesity epidemic. From a global standpoint, the workplace has become less physically demanding because of technological advancements.
For decades, researchers have investigated an association between obesity and kidney disease. In 1923, Preble [2] studied a series of 1000 obese patients and discovered that 410 of these patients exhibited albuminuria without nephritis. In 1974, Weisinger et al. [3] described the first association between massive obesity and nephrotic syndrome in four patients. The development of glomerulomegaly and focal segmental glomerulosclerosis (FSGS) has been generally associated with massive obesity and recognized as obesity-related glomerulopathy (ORG) [4]. In humans and experimental animal models, the impact of obesity on renal outcome includes structural and functional adaptations, such as increased glomerular filtration rate (GFR), increased renal blood flow and renal hypertrophy [5].
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EPIDEMIOLOGY

Although obesity-related proteinuria, especially histological evidence associated with FSGS and glomerulomegaly, is well-known, the majority of the publications on this issue include case reports or autopsy analyses on a small sample of individuals. Therefore, definitive epidemiological data regarding ORG are insufficiently available. From a single-centre review of 6818 kidney biopsies during a 14-year interval, Kambham et al. [4] reported an important retrospective study on ORG. In their study, obese (BMI ≥30 kg/m2) proteinuric patients were found to have ORG when they had glomerulomegaly with FSGS without other causes of FSGS, such as human immunodeficiency virus, heroin abuse and reduced renal mass (n= 57), or glomerulomegaly alone (n = 14) [4]. Other defined primary and secondary glomerular diseases, including diabetic nephropathy and hypertensive nephrosclerosis, were eliminated. They found that the incidence of ORG was increased from 0.2% of the total biopsy in 1990–1996 to 2.0% in 1996–2000 [4]. Such increased trends of ORG in renal biopsy have been described in a Chinese cohort that showed increased trends of ORG from 0.62% in 2002 to 1.0% in 2006. The mean BMI in ORG was 41.7 in the study of Kambham et al. [4], 35.0 in a Spanish cohort [6], 33.6 in a Chinese cohort [7] and 32.4 in a recent report from Japan [8].
ORG is often associated with FSGS-like histological characteristics. While the well-known idiopathic FSGS (i-FSGS) is one of the most severe prognoses in kidney function, ORG-associated FSGS is a less progressive disease and is qualitatively different from i-FSGS. Kambham's study showed that when compared with 50 patients with i-FSGS, ORG patients displayed a significantly lower incidence of nephrotic range proteinuria (48% versus 66%; ORG versus i-FSGS) and of nephrotic syndrome (5.6 versus 54%), higher serum albumin level (3.9 versus 2.9 g/dL), lower serum cholesterol (229 versus 335 mg/dL) and lower ratio of oedema (35 versus 68%) [4]. When renal histology was analysed, ORG patients exhibited fewer segmental sclerotic lesions compared with patients with i-FSGS (10 versus 39%), more glomerulomegaly (100 versus 10%), and less evidence of foot process effacement (40 versus 75%) [4]. In a long-term follow-up analysis (ORG, 27 months; i-FSGS, 38 months), significant renal end points were milder in ORG patients than in i-FSGS patients: serum creatinine doubling (14.3 versus 50%) or end-stage renal disease progression (3.6 versus 42%) [4]. In a Spanish cohort in whom longer kidney survival was analysed, kidney survival of patients with ORG (biopsy-proven evidence of FSGS lesion) was 77% after 5 years and 51% after 10 years, in contrast to kidney survival of patients with i-FSGS, which was 52% after 5 years and 30% after 10 years [6]. Both Chinese [7] and Japanese [8] cohorts showed that ORG is progressive, but not likely as progressive as i-FSGS. Several obese individuals have exhibited subclinical kidney diseases, defined as sclerotic lesions in a few glomeruli in patients with little or mild proteinuria and a normal GFR [9].
Although ORG with glomerular sclerosis has been described elsewhere, massive obesity is not necessarily associated with the presence of glomerular sclerosis; glomerular sclerosis-associated obesity is rare [9]. Autopsy studies have revealed the presence of glomerulomegaly in obese individuals, although glomerular sclerosis has not been frequently detected. Such information indicated that massive obesity alone is not sufficient to induce kidney injury and that potentially the mechanisms underlying the pathogenesis of glomerular sclerosis are not uniformly present in obese people. Alternatively, the unknown genetic background conducive for the development of glomerular sclerosis can contribute to the metabolic and mechanistic stresses. Similarly, the majority of hypertensive individuals never reach end-stage renal failure, with <1% of hypertensive individuals progressing to end-stage renal failure.
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PATHOGENESIS OF ORG

Any of the single mechanisms, such as neurohumoral, metabolic, structural and haemodynamic abnormalities that have been linked to the onset of microalbuminuria and decreased renal function, displays a limited potential to initiate overt glomerulosclerosis in obese people. Glomerular hyperfiltration and hypertrophy have been hypothesized to lead to segmental glomerulosclerosis in the obese population [4, 10], as described in patients with reduced renal mass and compensatory states [11]. Haemodynamic factors appear to be pathogenetically important in the association between severe obesity and FSGS, as demonstrated by studies in animals and humans. Hypertension can play an important role in the pathogenesis of secondary FSGS; secondary FSGS is the characteristic of pathological lesions observed in obesity [5]. The prevalence of hypertension can be directly attributed to obesity [12], and such obesity-associated hypertension is believed to play a pathological role in obesity-associated secondary FSGS [13]. Although hypertension is an important candidate mechanism in the pathogenesis of obesity-associated glomerulopathy, mild-to-moderate hypertension is often found in obesity and does not lead to substantial proteinuria or FSGS, in the absence of other contributing factors [14]. In this section, we discuss each candidate mechanism that is likely to be associated with obesity-related kidney injury.
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HYPERFILTRATION AND HYPERTROPHY IN GLOMERULI

Frequent associations of obesity and increased GFR in both experimental animal models and humans have been demonstrated. Therefore, we acknowledge that increased metabolic demands in obese individuals lead to glomerular hyperfiltration [11], with compensatory hypertrophy of kidney and glomerulus [15]. Human studies also exhibited obesity-associated abnormal renal haemodynamics, such as increased GFR and renal blood flow. Chagnac et al. [16] reported that obese individuals display 61% higher GFR with 28% higher renal plasma flow and 29% higher filtration fraction than control subjects. Increased filtration fractions would result in haemoconcentration of post-glomerular circulation and increased plasma oncotic pressure of the peritubular capillaries. Such high oncotic pressure in the peritubular capillaries can promote proximal tubular sodium reabsorption, which leads to salt retention and systemic hypertension [17]. Obesity-associated glomerular hypertrophy, hyperfiltration and systemic hypertension might enhance an individual's susceptibility to hypertensive renal damage and barotrauma [5].
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RENIN–ANGIOTENSIN SYSTEM

Similar to other proteinuric kidney diseases, the enhanced renin–angiotensin system (RAS) contributes to the pathogenesis of ORG; therefore, blockade of RAS provides blood pressure-independent renoprotection in ORG [5]. Angiotensin II can display deleterious effects via either haemodynamic or non-haemodynamic direct tissue damage-dependent pathway [18]. Although such a hypothesis of deleterious effects of angiotensin II on the renal system has been described elsewhere, we lack the direct mechanistic evidence to show specific pathogenic effects of angiotensin II on ORG [5], because we have derived information from non-obese experimental and clinical settings rather than from obesity models [5]. Nevertheless, RAS blockade with the appropriate use of diuretics might be effective in controlling blood pressure and reducing proteinuria in most individuals with ORG.
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DYSLIPIDEMIA

Dyslipidemia has been linked to the development of i-FSGS because of glomerular lipid deposition and foam cell formation [19]. Low-density lipoprotein-aphaeresis has been shown to ameliorate steroid-resistant i-FSGS by reducing proteinuria and increasing serum albumin levels in a short interval [20]. Clinically, dyslipidemia and lipotoxicity might be relevant in the pathogenesis of ORG and might be a therapeutic target, although most of the results were obtained from preclinical analyses. Zucker fatty rat (ZFR), used in the analyses [21], displayed marked dyslipidemia; intervention with lipid-lowering drugs substantially ameliorated the onset of proteinuria and glomerulosclerosis without curing glomerular hypertrophy [21].
It is unclear how amelioration of lipid metabolism defects can inhibit the progression of glomerulosclerosis. To investigate this subject, Jiang et al. [22] analysed diet-induced obesity (DIO) models in C57Bl6 mice and found that increased renal expression of sterol regulatory element-binding proteins (SREBP-1 and SREBP-2) in C57Bl/6J mice was associated with cholesterol and triglyceride accumulation in the kidney; when fed the same diet, A/J mice displayed neither lipid accumulation in the kidney nor SREBP induction. These authors also found that SREBP-1c-deficient mice were protected from high-fat diet (HFD)-induced lipid accumulation in the kidney and fibrogenic molecule induction [22]. Recently, heart-type fatty acid-binding protein (H-FABP or FABP3) has been shown to be induced in ORG-affected kidney glomeruli [23], which suggests that H-FABP contributed to lipid dysregulation in ORG kidney.
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HYPERLEPTINEMIA

Leptin levels in urine in Pima Indians have exhibited both a positive association with albuminuria and a negative association with GFR [24]. Leptin has been considered to stimulate fibrogenic cytokine expression, which contributes to glomerular sclerosis and tubule-interstitial fibrosis [25]. Leptin likely plays a pathogenic role in the onset of hypertension in obese individuals [25], although information about its fibrogenic role is limited. ZFR and db/db mice, with their leptin signalling completely shut down [1], exhibit a deficiency in leptin receptors and display significant obesity and glomerulosclerosis. Therefore, the phenotypes in these obese model animals were found to be independent of leptin receptor-mediated signalling. A pharmacological concentration of leptin in rats induced mild proteinuria and type II collagen expression (both 2–3-fold) via increased TGF-β1 production without altering blood pressure [26]. Nevertheless, leptin signalling cannot be the major inducer of ORG, but it can likely facilitate the phenotype.
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ANIMAL MODELS

In addition to ORG, obesity exhibits a clear correlation with diverse chronic diseases. To understand the pathomechanisms in human disease, we need relevant animal models [1]. Interestingly, even in mouse models, different strains of mice exhibit different phenotypes: either genomic-mutation or HFD-induced DIO. Apart from rodent models, obese dogs have also been analysed as a model system to investigate ORG [15]. Medaka fish, Oryzias latipes, exhibits HFD-induced ORG [27]. We summarized ORG or relevant obesity animal models in Table 1.
View this table:
Table 1.
Diverse obesity models and kidney phenotypes.
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THERAPEUTIC FOR ORG

Body weight reduction and RAS blockade

Both weight reduction and an RAS blockade can dramatically reduce urine protein excretion (up to 80–85%) in patients with ORG [28]. A total of 63 patients with renal biopsy-proven ORG were subject to nutrition with exercise intervention in a physician-supervised weight loss programme [29]. After 24 months, a BMI reduction of ∼9% resulted in a 51.33% reduction of urine protein excretion [29]. The effects of body weight reduction were observed 6 months later, when an 8.29% reduction in BMI was reached [29]. In addition, body-weight reduction by bariatric surgery has been associated with reductions in both urine albumin excretion and creatinine clearance [30]. However, it is unclear whether such a body-weight reduction intervention can cure the histological FSGS in ORG.

Sleep apnoea

There are several pathogenic connections between ORG and obesity-associated sleep apnoea syndrome; a cure for sleep apnoea displayed total resolution of the proteinuria [31]. However, a follow-up study of patients with varying degrees of sleep apnoea could not demonstrate the association between proteinuria and the presence or severity of sleep apnoea [32]. Sleep apnoea has been shown to be associated with glomerulomegaly even without detectable proteinuria in an extremely obese cohort [33]. In patients with sleep apnoea, albuminuria was induced during sleep, whereas in control subjects, urine albumin levels were suppressed during sleep [34]. Continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) reduced urine albumin levels during sleep, and the effects of CPAP were stronger in the population with non-dipping phenomenon of blood pressure [34]. Therefore, the renal effects of sleep apnoea itself may not be directly associated with kidney glomerulus structure, but they may be a secondary effect associated with haemodynamic alterations.
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PERSPECTIVE: FOR THE NEXT GENERATION

Nephron number: possible connection with other kidney function

Hyperfiltration could contribute to the pathogenesis of ORG; however, the pathomechanisms and the general application of the hyperfiltration theory to humans remain controversial. Remnant kidney in humans by extensive surgical removal of renal parenchyma has been associated with proteinuria, progressive renal insufficiency and biopsy-proven glomerulomegaly with FSGS [35, 36]. However, subsequent analyses of similar population results showed contradictory data [37]. Unilateral renal agenesis is another case in which glomerular injury can be induced in a similar fashion [38], although a significant number of patients with such congenital abnormality can maintain normal renal function without any proteinuria throughout their lifetime.
Gonzalez et al. [39] described the factors affecting the progression of renal damage in patients with unilateral renal agenesis and remnant kidney. Thirty-four of 54 patients displayed a diverse degree of proteinuria and renal insufficiency; the remaining 20 patients had normal kidney function without proteinuria. The most striking difference between the groups was BMI (29 ± 7.4 kg/m2 in the renal dysfunction group versus 24 ± 4.1 kg/m2 in the normal renal function group) [39]. A long-term follow-up study (100 ± 72 months) in the same population demonstrated that 45% of the cohort developed proteinuria or renal insufficiency and that renal dysfunction in this cohort exhibited higher BMI (27 ± 3.6 kg/m2) compared with that of the kidney without any sign of such damage (21.6 ± 2.6 kg/m2) [39]. These results indicate that overweight/obesity is an essential factor associated with the deterioration of renal function and a significant reduction in renal mass. Therefore, a synergistic interaction between reduced renal mass and obesity-induced haemodynamic changes could be relevant in the progression of renal damage in such a population with reduced renal mass.
Such renal mass reduction is not restricted in surgical resection of the kidney or renal agenesis. This theory could be relevant in all of the patients with some of chronic kidney disease patients [11]. The nephron number has been shown to be significantly associated with birthweight, and the low-birthweight population has been shown to develop metabolic syndrome and obesity in adulthood [11]. The offspring of malnourished pregnant rats displayed low birthweight with small kidney, pancreas and liver, although these small pups experienced an accelerated growth with hyperphagia, hyperinsulinemia, abdominal obesity and hypertension later in life [40]. Researchers have described similar observations in children with low birthweight who often display an exaggerated growth in weight and BMI compared with their height during childhood and adolescence [41]; these observations suggest compensatory growth in such a population as well as associated health problems, such as obesity, diabetes, hypertension and kidney deficiency. The prevalence of such low birthweight and future obesity in adults is common in developing countries with poor socioeconomic status [42]. Therefore, it is critical to devise strategies for managing ORG patients and combating ORG, gestational intervention with appropriate education and guidance for nutritional support.
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CONCLUSIONS

Recent epidemiological studies have shown that obesity poses a significant risk for the new-onset kidney diseases [43]. To treat current ORG patients, we realize that the therapeutic options can be limited and that the best option is body-weight reduction. To avoid epidemic obesity-associated health problems, we must think about our next generation, who will need sufficient medical access, proper nutritional support, appropriate education and a better environment without exposure to potentially poisonous or toxic molecules.
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FUNDING

Author's laboratory is supported by grants from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science and by several other foundation grants.
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CONFLICT OF INTEREST STATEMENT

None declared.
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