Abstract
The text Toxicology of the Kidney is part of the CRC Target Organ Toxicology series and is the third edition for the kidney. This text should be useful reading for pathologists studying the mechanism of a renal toxicant or drilling down on a renal toxicity finding in animals. The internationally renown authors are Joan Tarlof (a renal physiologist) and Lawrence Lash (a clinical pharmacologist). Nearly 50 contributors played a role, which included 5 veterinarians. The book includes 1176 pages of information. The first section includes a chapter addressing anatomy and physiology and is quite well done. Other chapters in this section include molecular biology of the kidney and assessments for renal effects, both in vivo and in vitro. These additional chapters are a bit academic and a bit spotty in terms of completeness. A second section on mechanisms of nephrotoxicity provides useful insight into select processes such as regeneration, apoptotic cell death, xenobiotic metabolism, oxidative stress and cell energetics. However, several important mechanisms are not addressed or inadequately addressed. For example, carbohydrate over nutrition and protein overload are not addressed at all. Transporters critical to understanding certain nephrotoxic responses are not specifically addressed. The mechanisms section does not consistently directly address the kidney though there is good discussion on renal specific considerations. While the mechanisms chapters are very good, the authors stumble on alpha2u-globulin stating that agents causing the unique male rat injury act by interfering with reabsorbtion of proteins from the filtrate- clearly an uninformed opinion. A third section presents chapters on the important clinical nephrotoxicants written from a clinical perspective covering numerous therapeutic agents, mycotoxins, heavy metals and others. These chapters provide good insight into current thinking on mechanism of injury for the major human nephrotoxins. A fourth section on risk and safety assessment includes an excellent chapter on age, sex, and species differences as well as a chapter on risk assessment for selected therapeutics. Other than for these two chapters, the text would be considered light on anatomic pathology and correlations of structure and function.