[Kidneys and lipids]

Nephrotic syndrome causes hypercholesterolemia. Chronic renal failure results in hypertriglyceridemia, low HDL cholesterol and, more often, apolipoprotein abnormalities. This dyslipidemia is not corrected by hemodialysis. Transplantation corrects it but leads to other kinds of lipid abnormalities. Whether the treatment of these potentially atherogenetic abnormalities is beneficial of not remains unproved. There is some evidence of lipid contribution to the constitution of glomerulosclerosis in animals but it remains hypothetical in man.