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Effects of decreased renal function on cardiovascular disease, fertility and cancer. New GFR markers and biomarkers for chronic kidney disease.

Principal investigator; Christensson, Anders, Associate Professor, MD/PhD

Clinical speciality: Renal medicine (nephrology)

Phone: ++4640333756

Co-workers: Hans Lilja, Professor; Laila Bruun MD; Sölve Elmståhl Professor

Research area/areas: Urology and Nephrology

This project aims at evaluating consequences of slight to moderate renal dysfunction. Several data indicate that even slight renal dysfunction is of importance for the outcome of cardiovascular diseases, renal diseases, cancer and fertility. So far, common methods of estimation of renal function are unable of detecting slight and moderate renal dysfunction. Our findings will be used in improvement of outcome of renal diseases and cardiovascular diseases but also in the detection of prostate cancer with prostate-specific antigen (PSA). Cystatin C, a low molecular weight protein (Mw 13 343 Da), is eliminated by glomerular filtration without tubular secretion and thus has the characteristics of an ideal endogenous GFR marker. Several investigations have shown that cystatin C is superior to creatinine as a GFR marker, especially in patients with early and moderate decreases in GFR.

We aim at evaluating new marker for renal function in order to find slight and moderate renal dysfunction at an early stage. Cystatin C and betatraceprotein will be studied. Patients with decreased renal function demonstrate high incidence of cardiovascular diseases. We aim at studying patients with slight renal insufficiency in a 20 year follow-up cohort of 33 000 patients. We will also study the risk of developing cancer in patients with decreased renal function. The low molecular mass of fPSA suggests elimination by glomerular filtration. We have shown that patients with terminal renal failure treated with dialysis have a significantly higher %fPSA and that this is due to increased plasma levels of fPSA. Our aim is to study the effect of slight and moderate renal dysfunction on fertility and the diagnosis of prostate cancer. We also study the decrease of renal function in elderly.

New methods to detect slight renal dysfunction will enable us to study the effect of renal dysfunction on cardiovascular diseases. The projects aims at evaluating the role of renal function in fertility and diagnosis of prostate cancer with PSA and to define the reference ranges for %fPSA.

Link to project homepage: http://

5 recent original publications

Ristiniemi N, Savage C, Bruun L, Pettersson K, Lilja H, Christensson A
Evaluation of a new immunoassay for cystatin C, based on a double monoclonal principle, in men with normal and decreased renal function
Nephrol Dial Transplant. 2011; Epub ahead of print:

Christensson Anders, Bruun Laila, Björk Thomas, Cronin Angel M, Vickers Andrew J, Savage Caroline J, Lilja Hans
Intra-individual short-term variability of prostate-specific antigen and other kallikrein markers in a serial collection of blood from men under evaluation for prostate cancer.
BJU international. 2010; Nov: -

Christensson Anders, Elmståhl Sölve
Estimation of the Age-Dependent Decline of Glomerular Filtration Rate from Formulas Based on Creatinine and Cystatin C in the General Elderly Population.
Nephron. Clinical practice. 2010; 117: c40 - c50

Bruun L, Savage C, Cronin A, Hugosson J, Lilja H, Christensson A
Increase in percent free prostate-specific antigen in men with chronic kidney disease.
Nephrol Dial Transpl . 2009; 24: 1238-1241

Grubb A, Nyman U, Björk J, Lindström V, Rippe B, Sterner G, Christensson A.
Simple Cystatin C-Based Prediction Equations for Glomerular Filtration Rate (GFR) Compared to the Simplified Modification of Diet in Renal Disease (MDRD) Prediction Equation for adults and to the S
Clin Chem. 2005; 51: 1420-1431

Further publications here (new window)

Financing/year