Summary
Lithium is used commonly to treat bipolar mood disorders. In addition to its primary
therapeutic effects in the central nervous system lithium has a number of side effects
in the kidney. The side effects include nephrogenic diabetes insipidus with polyuria,
mild sodium wasting, and changes in acid/base balance. These functional changes are
associated with marked structural changes in collecting duct cell composition and
morphology, likely contributing to the functional changes. Over the past few years,
investigations of lithium-induced renal changes have provided novel insight into the
molecular mechanisms that are responsible for the disturbances in water, sodium, and
acid/base metabolism. This includes dysregulation of renal aquaporins, epithelial
sodium channel, and acid/base transporters. This review focuses on these issues with
the aim to present this in context with clinically relevant features.
Keywords
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Article info
Footnotes
The Water and Salt Research Center at the University of Aarhus is established and supported by the Danish National Research Foundation (Danmarks Grundforskningsfond). This study was supported by The Danish Medical Research Council, the European Commission programs, Korea Science and Engineering Foundation grant funded by the Ministry of Science and Technology, Korea (R01-2007-000-20441-0).
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