Leemans J.C.: Renal Inflammation and Repair

Thanks to the financial support of NWO and the Dutch Kidney Foundation, we set up a research group dedicated to unravel the immunological mechanisms involved in renal injury and repair and to design new therapeutic tools for renal diseases.

To unravel the involvement of innate immunity in the renal diseases, we use relevant rodent models for acute and chronic renal injury (ischemia-reperfusion, obstructive nephropathy, renal transplantation, pyelonephritis, and metabolic syndrome-associated nephropathy using knock-out mice, transgenic mice, anti-sense oligonucleotide and blocking antibodies), renal biopsies, urine and plasma of renal patients, and in vitro models (tubular epithelial cell and endothelial cell cultures).

Our research line can be divided in 4 sub-themes:
a) The role of Pattern-Recognition Receptors (PRRs) in Renal Injury and Repair
b) The role of CD44 in Renal Injury and Repair
c) The fibrinolytic and clotting systems in Renal Injury and Repair
d) Development of validated analyses of renal transplant biopsies to identify local markers of tolerance and to predict the development of fibrosis

Theme: Infection and Immunity

This research group participates in the Center of Immunology Amsterdam (CIA)