New insights on inflammation in chronic kidney disease-genetic and non-genetic factors.

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) remains the major cause of morbidity and mortality in chronic kidney disease (CKD). As traditional risk factors cannot alone explain the unacceptable high prevalence and incidence of CVD in this population, inflammation (which is interrelated to insulin resistance, oxidative stress, wasting and endothelial dysfunction) has been suggested to be a significant contributor. Indeed, several different inflammatory biomarkers, such as high sensitivity C-reactive protein (CRP) has been shown to independently predict mortality in CKD patients. The causes of the highly prevalent state of inflammation in CKD are multiple and include factors such as volume overload, co-morbidity, intercurrent clinical events, the dialysis procedure per se as well as genetic factors. Indeed, multiple cytokine DNA polymorphisms may affect the inflammatory state, the clinical phenotype as well as outcome in this patient population.