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Query: UMLS:C0020500 (hyperoxaluria)
 912 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Microorganisms may have a role in the pathogenesis and prevention of kidney stones. The subjects of this review include nanobacteria, Oxalobacter formigenes, and lactic acid bacteria. Not reviewed here is the well-described role of infections of the urinary tract with Proteus species and other urease-producing organisms associated with struvite stone formation. Nanobacteria have been proposed to be very small (0.08-0.5 nm), ubiquitous organisms that could play a role in stone formation. The theory is that nanobacteria can nucleate carbonate apatite on their surfaces and thereby provide the nidus for stone formation. However, their existence remains uncertain and many investigators are openly skeptical. Recent investigations suggest that they are artifacts, and not actually living organisms, but their proponents continue to study them. O. formigenes is an obligate anaerobe which may be important in the prevention of stone formation. Its sole substrate for generation of ATP is oxalate. It may thereby metabolize its human host's dietary oxalate and diminish intestinal absorption and subsequent urinary excretion of oxalate. There is evidence that the organism's absence, perhaps sometimes due to courses of antibiotics, may be a cause of hyperoxaluria and stone formation. In early investigations, patients not colonized with the organism can be recolonized. Urinary oxalate can be diminished by accompanying an oxalate-containing meal with the organism. One study demonstrated that a preparation of lactic acid bacteria successfully reduced urinary oxalate excretion in 6 patients with calcium oxalate stones and hyperoxaluria. The mechanism of this effect is uncertain since these bacteria lacked the gene possessed by O. formigenes which codes for that organism's oxalate uptake mechanism. The author is currently completing a small randomized controlled clinical trial with this preparation in calcium stone-forming patients with idiopathic hyperoxaluria.
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PMID:Microorganisms and calcium oxalate stone disease. 1549 15

Although urolithiasis is common in spinal cord injury patients, it is presumed that the predisposing factors for urinary stones in spinal cord injury patients are immobilization-induced hypercalciuria in the initial period after spinal injury and, in later stages, urine infection by urease-producing micro-organisms, e.g., Proteus sp., which cause struvite stones. We describe a patient who sustained C-7 complete tetraplegia in a road traffic accident in 1970, when he was 16 years old. Left ureterolithotomy was performed in 1971 followed by left nephrectomy in 1972. Probably due to adhesions, this patient developed volvulus of the intestine in 1974. As he had complete tetraplegia, he did not feel pain in the abdomen and there was a delay in the diagnosis of volvulus, which led to ischemia of a large segment of the small bowel. All but 1 ft of jejunum and 1 ft of ileum were resected leaving the large bowel intact. In 1998, suprapubic cystostomy was performed. In 2004, this patient developed calculus in the solitary right kidney. Complete stone clearance was achieved by extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy. Stone analysis: calcium oxalate 60% and calcium phosphate 40%. Metabolic evaluation revealed hyperoxaluria, hypocitraturia, and hypomagnesiuria. Since this patient had hyperoxaluria, the stool was tested for Oxalobacter formigenes, a specific oxalate-degrading, anerobic bacterium inhabiting the gastrointestinal tracts of humans; absence of this bacterium appears to be a risk factor for development of hyperoxaluria and, subsequently, calcium oxalate kidney stone disease. DNA from the stool was extracted using the QIAamp DNA stool Mini Kit (Qiagen, Chatsworth, CA). The genomic DNA was amplified by polymerase chain reaction using specific primers for oxc gene (developed by Sidhu and associates). The stool sample tested negative for O. formigenes. The patient was prescribed potassium citrate mixture; he was advised to avoid oxalate-rich food, maintain recommended levels of calcium in his diet, and take live bio-yogurt. Two months later, 24-h urinary oxalate decreased from 0.618 to 0.411 mmol/day; 24-h urine citrate increased from 0.58 to 1.10 mmol/day. Six months later, an oxalate absorption test was performed. The patient swallowed a capsule, soluble in gastric juice, containing 50 mg (0.37 mmol) sodium [13C2]oxalate corresponding to 33.8 mg of [13C2]oxalic acid. The amount of labeled oxalate, excreted in urine, was measured by a gas chromatographic-mass spectrometric assay. Oxalate absorption, expressed as the percentage of the labeled dose recovered in the 24-h urine after dosing, was 8.3% (reference range: 2.3-17.5%). In addition to other conventional measures, oral administration of O. formigenes or lactic acid bacteria mixture to promote bacterial degradation of oxalate in the gut, and thus combat hyperoxaluria, may play a role in prevention of calcium oxalate kidney stones.
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PMID:Hyperoxaluria, hypocitraturia, hypomagnesiuria, and lack of intestinal colonization by Oxalobacter formigenes in a cervical spinal cord injury patient with suprapubic cystostomy, short bowel, and nephrolithiasis. 1761 9

Microorganisms are one of the important factors for urinary calculi formation. While urease-positive bacteria and nanobacteria contribute to stone formation, Oxalobacter formigenes rods play a protective role against the development of urolithiasis. Proteus mirabilis alkaline environment of the urinary tract and cause crystallization mainly of struvite (magnesium ammonium phosphate). However, nanobacteria, due to the possibility of apatite deposition on the surface of their cells, have long been considered as an etiological factor of urinary calculi consisting of calcium phosphates. O. formigenes is an anaerobe using oxalate as the main source of carbon and energy and occurs as natural gastrointestinal microflora of humans and animals. These bacteria control the amount of oxalate excretion degrading oxalates and regulating their transport by intestinal epithelium. Lower colonization of the human colon by O. formigenes can cause increased oxalate excretion and lead to the development of oxalate urolithiasis. Due to the positive influence of O. formigenes, there is ongoing research into the use of this microorganism as a probiotic in the prophylaxis or treatment of hyperoxaluria, both secondary and primary. The results of these studies are very promising, but they still require continuation. Future studies focus on the exact characteristics of O. formigenes including their metabolism and the development of methods for applying as a therapeutic agent the bacteria or their enzymes degrading the oxalate.
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PMID:[Oxalobacter formigenes--characteristics and role in development of calcium oxalate urolithiasis]. 2437 55