The Process of Renal Fibrosis

Renal fibrosis is a kind of physiopathology change. It refers to a changing process from healthy kidneys, to damaged kidneys and finally totally failed kidneys. If the renal fibrosis process is not inhibited as early as possible, the patients will develop End Stage Renal Failure (ESRF).

In Kidney Diseases, the kidneys suffer infections, inflammation, blood circulation disorder, abnormal immune response and so on. As a result, the renal intrinsic cells are impaired gradually. In the advanced stage of renal fibrosis, a mass of collagen accumulates and deposits in kidneys, which can cause renal parenchyma sclerosis and from scarring. Finally, the kidneys fail completely. Renal fibrosis is featured with the abnormal deposition of extracellular matrix (ECM).

In Kidney Disease, various kinds of causes can damage the renal intrinsic cells and then a series of inflammatory factors are released leading to inflammatory response and increased cell activity. This is the inflammatory response process in Kidney Disease. With the progression of Kidney Disease, the damage to cells is aggravated and the cell phenotype transformation occurs. As a result, the renal intrinsic cells begin to ossify and renal function begins to lose. When less than 50% of the renal function is lost, it is the prophase of renal fibrosis. In this phase, for the strong compensatory capacity of kidneys, the patients do not have clinical symptoms.

With the development of renal fibrosis, more and more renal intrinsic cells are damaged and there are less and less healthy intrinsic cells. When the number of healthy nephrons is declining is less than 20%, the patients develop into Renal Failure phase. In this phase, the patients begin to present a series of clinical symptoms. When more than 90% of renal nephrons have fibrosis change, a series of uremic symptoms appears like metabolic acidosis, heart problem and so on. The disease has developed into End Stage Renal Failure (ESRF). At this stage, the residual nephrons have ossified and the extracellular matrix forms automatically and excessively.

Therefore, inhibiting the renal fibrosis initiation is the key for the treatment of Kidney Disease.

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