Research
The research of our laboratory focuses of renal physiology and pathophysiology. We are studying the role of tubular ion transport and energy consumption by kidney tubular cells as well as the role of adrenal steroids in the progression of chronic kidney disease and kidney interstitial fibrosis.
The kidney is responsible of body homeostasis that is the maintenance of both volume and composition of the “milieu intérieur”. Chronic kidney disease is an increasing public health issue since about 10% of the worldwide population has abnormal kidney function and renal failure is one of the top 10 causes of mortality. There is currently no efficient treatment that either prevent or halt progression of chronic kidney disease. While angiotensin-II converting enzyme inhibitors and antagonists of the mineralocorticoid receptor display some efficacy, they may have life-threatening side effects.
We are currently studying the role of :
- increased metabolic work and energy consumption of remaining kidney tubule epithelial cells
- increased aldosterone secretion in response to high dietary potassium intake
- increased tissular conversion of inactive cortisone to active cortisol
We study the severity of progression of chronic renal lesions in the tubular, interstitial and micro-vascular compartments of the kidney using obstructive, tubular or glomerular mouse models of kidney diseases mimicking the human pathophysiology. For our studies we are using both classical laboratory methods such as transgenic animals, real-time PCR, Western-blotting, histology and immunofluorescence coupled with single cell nucleus sequencing, spacial mRNA sequencing and bioinformatic analysis.
Our studies are in general translational with a human counterpart on cohorts of patients with chronic kidney disease or kidney transplantation.