Nephrolithiasis is one of the most common urological disorders worldwide, and its aetiology remains multifactorial and not fully understood. Both environmental and genetic factors are considered to contribute to the formation of urinary stones. In addition to well-established risk factors such as dietary habits, fluid intake, and body mass index, increasing evidence suggests that inherited disturbances in metabolic pathways, particularly those related to citrate and purine metabolism, may significantly influence susceptibility to urolithiasis.
Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the potential association between selected seven single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in genes involved in purine and citrate metabolism - rs7279549 (T>C) – GART, rs2304497 (T>G) and rs80715753 (A>G) – ACLY, rs1713420 (A>G) – PNP, rs1884725 (A>G) and rs2295475 (G>A) – XDH, rs6634990 (T>G) – HPRT - and the development of nephrolithiasis in a Polish population. Genotyping was performed using TaqMan SNP genotyping assays. Moreover, we verified the association of urolithiasis development and mRNA expression of HPRT, PNP, XDH, ACLY and GART in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (the evaluation of mRNA expression was performed using real-time PCR and 2-ΔCt methods). Moreover, metabolomic profiling of urine samples was carried out using nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy to determine the concentrations of selected metabolites associated with purine and citrate metabolism, including citrate, hypoxanthine, and glycine.
The presented experiments were conducted in cooperation with the Department of Urology of the Provincial Hospital of M. Kacprzak in Płock. In this study, it has been qualified 112 patients with urolithiasis hospitalised at the Department of Urology of the Provincial Hospital of M. Kacprzak in Płock and a homologous group of 114 healthy volunteers based on consent Bioethics Committee of the University of Lodz No. 12/KBBN-UŁ/II/2020-21 and the Bioethics Committee of the Medical University of Łódź (approval no. RNN/141/21/KE). The data were obtained for the project, the aim of which was to identify potential prognostic markers of urolithiasis.
(2023-03-31)