Dynamics in Weight Gain after Kidney Transplantation

Authors

• AK Cashion
• Y-E Cho
• C Lai
• HS Kim

Abstract

Epidemiological data from the past decade suggest that the global burden of patients with renal failure who receive kidney transplantation (KTxP) exceeds 1.4 million and this number is growing by about 8% a year. Even with the increasing survival rate over 90% at 1 year of transplant, long term success has been complicated by cardiovascular diseases mostly induced by extensive weight gain after the transplant surgery. Average weight gain in 1 year of kidney transplant is 6 to 13 kg, significantly higher than normal adults of 0.5 to 1kg gain. The underlying mechanisms of weight gain in this population is not clear yet. Integrative analysis with genomic, proteomic and other biological features would be helpful to understand the dynamics of weight gain after transplant. We recruited 96 kidney transplant recipients (57% male, 65% black, 50.8±12.6 years old), and collected peripheral blood and clinical data at the time of transplant and 12-month post transplant. Sub-studies were conducted to characterize factors including physical activity, dietary intake, oxidative stress (total antioxidant capacity, and lipid peroxidation), brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), and exosomes, which might be associated with weight gain during the 12 months. Results show that changes in these factors are involved in the dynamics of weight gain. Further studies including protein and miRNA profile of this population will be followed to accumulate the knowledge, which provide us insights for the therapeutic approaches for weight gain after transplant.

Scientific Focus Area: Institute, Center, and Scientific Directors

This page was last updated on Friday, March 26, 2021