Advances in the understanding of mitochondrial DNA as a pathogenic factor in inflammatory diseases

Preclinical and clinical studies have demonstrated multiple relevant lung-kidney interactions (2, 3). For example, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and ventilator-induced lung injury promote endothelial inflammation in the lung and kidney (2, 4). Furthermore, the development of renal injury in patients with pulmonary disease is important clinically, as acute kidney injury (AKI) is associated with increased mortality and poor long-term functional outcomes (5). In this study, Chawla and colleagues hypothesized that patients with combined AKI and pneumonia would have a higher incidence of mortality and permanent renal dysfunction after hospitalization than patients with AKI or pneumonia alone (1).This was a retrospective analysis from a Veterans Affairs database that included 54,894 hospitalized patients. The authors compared three groups on the basis of International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision …