LUMC researchers have developed a new method to map the metabolism of individual cells. They show that this technique can map in detail changes that kidney cells undergo after an oxygen deficiency. In this way, the researchers believe they can predict possible damage to the kidney. The research is published in Nature Metabolism and funded through the reNEW consortium.
This is one of the first published studies from the reNEW consortium, a collaboration between LUMC, the University of Copenhagen and the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute, which received a €300 million boost last December to bring regenerative medicine closer to patients.
New treatment options
The metabolism of a cell, also called metabolism, ensures the generation of energy and maintains important body substances. Disruptions of this can lead to irreversible damage to the cell. An essential process that researchers would like to understand. However, until now it has not been possible to view the metabolism of a tissue or organ at the level of an individual cell. This is about to change with this new technology. The researchers believe that this is useful for several disciplines. For example, it can be used to closely monitor tumor cells and to look for new targets for treatments.
More information
In Nature Metabolism, researchers from the Department of Kidney Diseases and the Center for Proteomics and Metabolomics write why it is important to study the metabolism and function of cells separately. A change in the metabolism of one cell has a different effect on the larger tissue or organ than a change in another cell. By looking at the cells separately from each other, researchers gain much more information about what exactly goes wrong in a tissue or organ during illness.
Predict damage
The researchers applied the new method to the kidneys of mice that had suffered from an oxygen deficiency. In humans, this occurs, for example, when a donor kidney is transported to the recipient. Once the blood flowed through the mouse’s kidney again, the kidney appeared to be working properly again. But thanks to the new method, they discovered that the metabolism of some cells has changed permanently. This can cause damage to the kidney in the long term. Researchers hope to use this method in the future to predict whether and what kind of damage a donor kidney will develop after, for example, an oxygen deficiency.