Uric Acid and Urate in Urolithiasis: The Innocent Bystander, Instigator, and Perpetrator

Summary: Uric acid is an end product of purine metabolism in human beings. An unusual and still unexplained phenomenon is that higher primates have relatively high uric acid levels in body fluids owing to a combination of absence of degradation and renal retention. The physiologic purpose of high uric acid levels still is enigmatic, but the pathobiologic burden is a variety of crystallopathies owing to the low aqueous solubility of uric acid such as gouty arthritis and acute uric acid nephropathy.
Source: Seminars in Nephrology - Category: Urology & Nephrology Authors: Source Type: research