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Joan Stephenson, PhD

JAMA. 2007;298:731.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings.

A devastating kidney disease found in certain areas of Balkan countries may be caused by contaminated grain, report Croatian and US researchers (Grollman AP et al. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. doi:10.1073/pnas.0701248104 [published online ahead of print July 9, 2007]).

Endemic (Balkan) nephropathy (EN), first described in the late 1950s, occurs only in Balkan farming villages along tributaries of the Danube River. The disease progresses rapidly to chronic renal failure and is associated with upper urinary tract transitional cell (urothelial) cancer.

The researchers found that DNA from renal tissues of patients with the disorder had DNA damage characteristic of exposure to aristolochic acid (a chemical found in a plant native to the region, Aristolochia clematitis); DNA from renal tissues of patients with other forms of chronic kidney disease did not. Urothelial cancer tissues from residents of endemic villages had similar DNA damage, as . . . [Full Text of this Article]