The Importance of Kidney Health

The lab site that I work at is interested in understanding the nature of kidney injury, specifically the types of kidney injuries that lead to a reduction of function in the kidneys, as well as the processes that mediate kidney repair. The overall goal of the lab site is to determine if and how acute kidney injury leads to the progression of chronic kidney disease. The project that I am specifically working on involves injuring rat kidneys and monitoring the progression of fibrosis in those kidney tissues, while also monitoring levels of Th-17 and IL-17 cells. In the kidneys, these cells play a huge role in immunology and helping repair tissue, and by looking at the kidney tissue samples with staining patterns under a microscope, the levels of these cells and fibrosis can be monitored. The purpose of the procedure is to see if there are higher levels of fibrosis in the kidney tissues, which aligns with decreased levels of Th-17 and IL-17 cells, thus concluding the idea that acute kidney injury can lead to chronic kidney disease. 

Supervisor:David Basile 
Department:Anatomy, Cell Biology, and Physiology