What is the issue?
Doctors must make careful decisions about which donated kidneys are safe to use for a transplant, but it can be difficult to predict which kidneys will work well in their new recipient. They need better ways to check the health of donated kidneys before transplanting them.
What is being done to address it?
Healthy kidneys make a protein called uromodulin, and low levels of this can mean the kidneys are damaged. Researchers want to measure levels of this protein in the blood of organ donors to see if they can predict which kidneys would work well after transplant.
How will this help future patients?
This could help doctors to make more confident decisions about using donated kidneys for transplant that may have otherwise been turned down, potentially helping more patients to receive life-saving transplants.
RAP113: Serum uromodulin in kidney donors as a predictor of kidney transplant recipient outcomes