Grant: Project Grant

Diabetic kidney disease is the number one cause chronic kidney disease and end stage kidney disease. Patients with diabetic kidney disease have buildup of fat molecules called lipid droplets in their kidney. Why lipid droplets accumulate in diabetic kidney disease remains unknown. We discovered a gene called IL32 that is highly expressed in the kidneys of diabetic patients. IL32 can bind to lipid droplets when there is high sugar and signals that cause inflammation. We think that high levels of IL-32 can cause more inflammation and injury to the kidney. We will use our kidney biobank containing over 500 patient kidney biopsies combined with cutting edge technologies to find out how lipid droplet associated IL32 can promote the progression of diabetic kidney disease. We are making "mini-kidneys" called kidney organoids from patients with diabetes that retain qualities of the patient. Using these exciting new tools, we are examining how to reduce the buildup of lipid droplets and ways to block the activity of IL32 to prevent kidney injury and disease. We believe that IL32 can also be a biomarker for predicting outcomes for diabetic kidney disease.