Kidney failure and the gut: p-cresol and the dangers from within.

Previously, uremic toxins were sometimes regarded as a large, mysterious, but also anonymous group of factors potentially contributing to morbidity and mortality in end-stage renal disease. By identifying the protein-bound solute p-cresol as a risk factor for mortality in dialysis patients, Bammens and colleagues for the first time present evidence of a clinically relevant uremic toxin in relation to clinical outcome.