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With the increasing prevalence and mortality, chronic kidney disease (CKD) has become a world public health problem. As the primary pathological manifestation in CKD, renal fibrosis is often used as a critical target for the treatment of CKD and inhibits the progression of CKD to end-stage renal disease (ESRD). As a potential drug, natural products have been confirmed to have the potential as a routine or supplementary therapy for chronic kidney disease, which may target renal fibrosis and act through various pharmacological activities such as anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidation of natural products. This article briefly introduces the pathological mechanism of renal fibrosis and systematically summarizes the latest research on the treatment of renal fibrosis with natural products of Chinese herbal medicines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A 79-year-old patient developed severe hypoalbuminemia associated with eosinophilic peritonitis (EP) after receiving continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis (CAPD) for 3 years. The hypoalbuminemia and EP treated successfully with the use of prednisone acetate. This case is reported to emphasize the importance of diagnosis of EP that should be suspected when the peritoneal dialysis (PD) patient presents with severe hypoalbuminemia combined with turbid effluent along with repeated negative cultures. A short course of low-dose oral glucocorticoid may be considered in accelerating the resolution of the episode in such cases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Encapsulating peritoneal sclerosis (EPS) is an uncommon and harmful complication which may cause destructive outcomes. Matrix metalloproteinase-2 (MMP-2) as a protease can reduce constituents of the extracellular matrix and play a crucial role in the progression of EPS. As a new biomarker, MMP-2 may improve the detection rate of EPS patients in clinical work. In this review, we summarize the recent study of MMP-2 in different etiologies and the assessment of its application value and draw attention to its future directions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]