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Nutrition

Folic acid delays CKD progression

Nature Reviews Nephrology volume 12, page 580 (2016)Cite this article

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Patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) have a high prevalence of hyperhomocysteinemia, which can result from deficiencies in B vitamins — including folic acid — and is associated with an increased risk of the development of albuminuria and CKD. New data from a renal substudy of the CSPTT trial by Xin Xu and colleagues suggest that folic acid therapy might have a renoprotective effect in hypertensive patients with mild-to-moderate CKD.

“Previous interventional studies (the HOST and DIVINe trials) showed either no benefit, or harmful effects, of high doses of folic acid and B vitamins on renal outcomes,” says Xu. “However, these trials were conducted in populations with grain fortification of folic acid. The renal effect of folic acid therapy in patients with mild-to-moderate CKD, and the effect of this therapy in a population without mandatory folic acid fortification, such as in China, had not been evaluated in a randomized controlled trial.”

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References

  1. Xu, X. et al. Efficacy of folic acid therapy on the progression of chronic kidney disease. The Renal Substudy of the China Stroke Primary Prevention Trial. JAMA Intern. Med. http://dx.doi.org/10.1001/jamainternmed.2016.4687 (2016)

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  1. Ellen F. Carney
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Carney, E. Folic acid delays CKD progression. Nat Rev Nephrol 12, 580 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrneph.2016.136

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