Evidence grows for the gut-kidney axis, but questions still remain.

Abstract

Lin et al. presented the largest cross-sectional study to date on the gut microbiome and kidney health. Their use of a vast sample size, discovery and validation approach, shotgun metagenomics, and integration with serum metabolomics represents a significant advance. In this commentary, we place these new findings into context with prior research and highlight the need for studies with a prospective design to identify true temporal relationships of the gut microbiome with kidney health.