Hydrogen sulphide and the kidney: important roles in renal physiology and pathogenesis and treatment of kidney injury and disease.

Abstract The kidney is an essential mammalian organ that serves to filter toxins and metabolic by-products out of the blood, which are then excreted through urine. Hydrogen sulphide (H 2 S) is a recently characterized, endogenous gaseous molecule with important physiological roles. Many interesting roles continue to be identified for H 2 S related specifically to the kidney. The current review discusses how production and action of H 2 S influences normal physiology of the kidney. We investigate as well the many roles H 2 S plays in the pathogenesis and treatment of kidney injury and disease, such as chronic kidney disease (CKD), ureteral obstruction (UO), hyperhomocysteinaemia (HHcy), drug-induced nephrotoxicity (DIN) and renal ischaemia reperfusion injury (IRI). We suggest that H 2 S plays a complex and essential role in the normal function of the kidney and dysregulation of H 2 S production can directly or indirectly contribute to the pathogenesis of renal disease and injury. Also, H 2 S could be a promising potential therapeutic treatment to decrease the severity of several renal diseases. Further research will identify increasingly important and complex roles for H 2 S in renal physiology and how H 2 S can be effectively utilized to improve clinical outcomes of renal disease.