Lab Overview

Sarah Faubel, MD is Professor of Medicine with Tenure in the Division of Nephrology and Hypertension at the University of Colorado.

The overall goal of our research is to clarify the systemic effects of acute kidney injury (AKI) in order to identify targets to reduce the very high mortality rate associated with AKI. Our current research portfolio includes studies in both patients and murine models.

Our research has focused on the systemic complications of AKI including inflammation, lung injury, the counter-inflammatory response, immune dysfunction, cardiac dysfunction, energy metabolism, and the hepatic acute phase response. Complications from the systemic effects of AKI are now recognized to contribute to the excess mortality observed in patients with AKI.

We were the first to identify a specific mediator of lung injury after AKI, namely IL-6. We have published extensively on the biologic effects of IL-6 in AKI and have translated our findings to patients. In our studies investigating the biology of IL-6 during AKI, we uncovered novel information regarding the production and clearance of NGAL – the most well studied AKI biomarker – and demonstrated that the liver is the major source of NGAL after AKI which is upregulated by circulating IL-6. Regarding the heart, we have demonstrated that AKI results the depletion of ATP and causes diastolic dysfunction.

Currently funded projects are focused on energy metabolism and cardiac dysfunction function after AKI. In patients, we are are performing studies in established AKI requiring CRRT to examine energy metabolism and solute clearance.