New research offers hope for people with liver and kidney damage

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Public release date: 30-Mar-2007

Federation of American Societies for

Experimental Biology

Something

fishy in human blood could save lives

New

research in the FASEB journal offers hope for people with liver and kidney

damage

Bethesda, MD

-- Thousands of people with liver and kidney disease die every year from too

much ammonia in their blood, and scientists from the United

States and Japan

have found a possible solution. In the April 2007

issue of The FASEB Journal they report that a protein which excretes ammonia

through puffer fish gills is similar to human Rh blood proteins. By targeting human Rh proteins, new treatments will help

people with damaged livers and kidneys remove toxic ammonia from their

bloodstream.

" Rh

proteins are important targets for treatment of high toxic blood ammonia levels

that occur in liver disease, " said Shigehisa Hirose, co-author of the

study. " Our findings also indicate that the

ammonia transport system involving Rh glycoproteins is evolutionally conserved

in a broad range of organisms, suggesting an essential role for

surviving. "

For

people with kidney and liver damage, the need to remove naturally occurring

ammonia from the bloodstream is critical. Brain cells

are particularly susceptible to ammonia, and at low levels, ammonia toxicity

can cause mild to severe confusion, drowsiness, or tremors. At

high levels, ammonia toxicity leads to coma and eventually death. Rh blood proteins are most commonly recognized as being

used to help define blood type. For instance, people

who are type A, B, AB, or O positive have Rh blood proteins on the surface of

their red blood cells. People who are type A, B, AB,

or O negative do not have Rh proteins on the surface of their red blood cells.

" This

study has broad implications for practically any disease or trauma affecting

the liver or kidneys, " said Gerald Weissmann, M.D., Editor-in-Chief of The

FASEB Journal. " And the evolutionary implications

make it even more compelling—hook, line, and sinker. "

In

addition to describing a new target for removing ammonia from the body, this

study describes how fish gills are able to excrete ammonia at the molecular

level using Rh proteins. This finding, when combined

with the presence of Rh proteins in numerous organisms, adds a piece to the

evolutionary puzzle, by suggesting that Rh proteins were developed very early

in the evolution of animal systems, and continue to play an important role in

removing toxic ammonia.

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