Deciphering mineralogical and compositional properties of kidney stones: Implications for formation mechanism and potential treatments

Kidney stone disease is a vital health problem with a significant increase in prevalence worldwide.

It is known that kidney stone formation is affected by medical conditions (i.e., diabetes), environmental factors, dietary habits, and gender, although the relationship between the stone mineralogical and chemical properties (e.g., crystal structure, elemental composition, etc.) to the urine and blood parameters are still unclear.

Notably, there is limited information on how the kidney stone mineral phase is influenced by the organic compounds of body fluids during growth and dissolution.

Likewise, the kidney stone isotope composition will be recorded during its formation, and subsequently can be used as an indicator of dietary habits, environmental factors, and identifying underlying diseases (e.g., diabetes, osteoporosis).

MiKidSton aims to perform a systematic study, from macro- to nanoscale, on a large array of different types of kidney stone samples, to assess: i) the influence of the body fluid (urine and blood) parameters, as recorded in patients, on the characteristics of kidney stone biomineral phases, ii) the relationship of the chemical/isotope composition of kidney stones to their structure, and risk factors (e.g., diet, environment, diabetes, etc.), and iii) the controlling factors for stone formation and dissolution.

These objectives will be achieved combining applicant’s expertise and that of PIs, from the two host institutions, on mineralogical and isotope analyses.

The outcomes will shed light on connection between kidney stone structure, composition, growth and dissolution with physiological parameters for patients with urolithiasis, with important implications for accurate diagnosis and effective treatment strategies.

Finally, MiKidSton findings will have important implications for future pathological biomineral investigation using cutting-edge techniques and, most importantly, for the study of other stone-related human diseases (e.g., gallstones).