High blood pressure can do more damage than you think.
A research team from the Medical University of Vienna has discovered that high blood pressure itself can damage very important kidney cells.
This finding is important because it shows that high blood pressure can damage the kidneys before symptoms appear.
The results of the study have been published in the journal Hypertension and was directed by Christopher Paschen, Rainer Oberbauer and Heinz Regele.
Their goal was to learn more about how high blood pressure affects kidney function and its cells, commonly called nephrons.
The kidneys are essential for filtering waste and extra fluid from the body. Inside each kidney are tiny filters called glomeruli, which are made up of special cells known as podocytes.
These podocytes are essential for the filtering function of the kidneys and if they are damaged or reduced in number, the kidney cannot function as well.
To investigate this, the team analyzed kidney tissue from 99 patients. Some patients had high blood pressure or type 2 diabetes, and some had neither.
The tissue samples came from people who had surgery to remove a kidney tumor between 2013 and 2018. Importantly, the researchers only studied healthy parts of the kidney, and not the areas affected by the tumor.
They used advanced imaging tools and artificial intelligence to carefully measure the size and number of podocytes, as well as the amount of glomeruli.
The findings showed that people with high blood pressure had fewer podocytes than people without high blood pressure. Their remaining podocyte cells were also larger, with larger cell nuclei. These changes were seen even in people who did not have diabetes, suggesting that high blood pressure alone can lead to early kidney damage.
These types of structural changes in the kidney are one of the first warning signs of possible problems in kidney function.
However, because these changes occur before symptoms or abnormal laboratory results appear, they can help doctors detect kidney problems earlier.
