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Tracy Hampton, PhD

JAMA. 2008;299(13):1533.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings.

New research in mice offers clues to factors that promote the development of a relatively common problem in humans, kidney stones (Clark JS et al. J Physiol. 10.1113/jphysiol.2007.143222 [published online ahead of print January 3, 2008]). Kidney stones are virtually absent in mice, and scientists at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston found that a key reason relates to how the body eliminates the chemical oxalate, which is common in food.

Kidney stones are made up of oxalate and other chemicals that are normally excreted in the urine. The gut usually disposes oxalate from the diet into the feces by exchanging it for chloride. But if there is little chloride available—for example, in a person who consumes a low-salt diet—oxalate may be retained by the intestine and later excreted by the kidneys, where the stones may form.

The investigators showed that the human form of . . . [Full Text of this Article]