Cardiorenal Translational Laboratory

Chronic kidney disease (CKD) and cardiovascular (CV) disease share common risk factors. The presence of both diseases
significantly increase the risk of suffering important CV events and death even after adjusting by the well-known
conventional risk factors. Phosphate serum levels are considered as a non-classical risk factor in
CKD. However, it is very possible that associated to the uncontrolled phosphate levels exists the “secondary actor” named
fibroblast growth factor (FGF)-23 that might exert more deleterious CV effects than the hyperphosphatemic
conditions inherent to a dysfuntional kidney. In CKD, FGF-23 levels increase as functional capacity of kidneys to eliminate
phosphates diminishes. Recently, high FGF-23 levels have been related to a higher probability of CV events and
death in CV chronic diseases as heart failure. Thus, our project aims to determine the specific role of  FGF-23 in cardiomyocyte contractile function. Moreover, this translational study purposes to determine whether FGF-23 could be a new biomarker of CV risk in CKD.