[Molecular mechanism of renal stone formation]

Urolithiasis is a multifactorial disease involving environmental and gentic factors. Calcium-containing stones, which are>90% of all stones, detected most frequently ; however, radically effective prevention and detailed investigation of crystal formation have not been established. Renal stone formation is a complex multistep process that includes supersaturation, crystal nucleation, growth, and aggregation. In the early stage of crystal formation, exposure to high concentrations of oxalate can induce renal tubular cell injury, following crystal attachment to renal tubular cell in which stone matrix proteins or urinary high molecular substances play an important role as a promoter or inhibitor respectively. Recent study speculated that renal macrophage could englobe crystals and might digest them. In this part, we propose the molecular mechanism that has been newly investigated recently, in renal stone formation.