Peritoneal dialysis (PD) is a life-saving renal replacement therapy for more than 200,000 patients worldwide. However, PD causes major morbidity and mortality due to infectious complications and peritoneal membrane failure.
From a holistic view, this damage must be regarded as imbalance between PD-related cellular insults and counteracting stress responses. Research at the Medical University of Vienna provided clear evidence for dysfunctional cellular stress responses as a novel pathomechanism in PD. Interventions with cytoprotective PD fluids (PDF) restored peritoneal cellular stress responses, and has been developed to first-use-in-man.
The “Christian Doppler Laboratory for Molecular Stress Research in Peritoneal Dialysis (CDL-MSRPD)” aims to identify molecular stress signatures as surrogate markers of clinical outcome in PD, and to characterize effects and molecular mechanisms of mode of action of PD-protec™, a novel cytoprotective PDF with added alanyl-glutamine, developed to counteract dysfunctional cellular stress responses in PD.
Ap. Prof. Priv.-Doz. Dipl.-Ing. Dr. Klaus Kratochwill
Head of CD-Lab