“If we can learn why women are more resistant to acute kidney injury, we may be able to develop new treatments for this devastating condition,” - Dr. Kevin BurnsDuring critical illnesses like septic shock, the kidneys are often the first to shut down and the last to recover, if they recover at all. Previous research has shown that men are more severely affected by this kind of acute kidney injury than women, but very little research has looked at why.

Now, a new study from Dr. Kevin Burns’ group published in Clinical Science has shown for the first time that male and female mice have strikingly different molecular responses to acute kidney injury. Dr. Burns and his team examined gene expression on a massive scale in male and female mice with and without acute kidney injury. They found that in males, the cells that line the blood vessels in the kidneys have an aggressive response to kidney injury involving more than 1,000 genes. But in females, only 56 genes are affected.

Understanding these differences could lead to the development of new treatments for both men and women.

“If we can learn why women are more resistant to acute kidney injury, we may be able to develop new treatments for this devastating condition,” said Dr. Kevin Burns, Director of the Kidney Research Centre at The Ottawa Hospital and the University of Ottawa.

Authors: Jose L. Viñas; Christopher J. Porter; Adrianna Douvris; Matthew Spence; Alex Gutsol; Joseph A. Zimpelmann; Karishma Tailor; Pearl A. Campbell; Kevin D. Burns.

Core Resources: StemCore, Bioinformatics

Funding: Canadian Institutes of Health Research, Kidney Foundation of Canada, The Ottawa Hospital Foundation

The Ottawa Hospital is a leading academic health, research and learning hospital proudly affiliated with the University of Ottawa.   

Media Contact 
Amelia Buchanan
Senior Communication Specialist
Ottawa Hospital Research Institute
613-297-8315
ambuchanan@ohri.ca