Abstract:The property changes of urinary nanocrystallites in 13 patients with calcium oxalate (CaOx) stones were studied before and after ingestion of potassium citrate (K 3 cit), a therapeutic drug for stones. The analytical techniques included nanoparticle size analysis, transmission electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, and Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy. The studied properties included the components, morphologies, zeta potentials, particle size distributions, light intensity autocorrelation curves, and polydispersity indices (PDIs) of the nanocrystallites. The main components of the urinary nanocrystallites before K 3 cit intake included uric acid, β-calcium phosphate, and calcium oxalate monohydrate. After K 3 cit intake, the quantities, species, and percentages of aggregated crystals decreased, whereas the percentages of monosodium urate and calcium oxalate dehydrate increased, and some crystallites became blunt. Moreover, the urinary pH increased from 5.96 ± 0.43 to 6.46 ± 0.50, the crystallite size decreased from 524 ± 320 nm to 354 ± 173 nm, and the zeta potential decreased from −4.85 ± 2.87 mV to −8.77 ± 3.03 mV. The autocorrelation curves became smooth, the decay time decreased from 11.4 ± 3.2 ms to 4.3 ± 1.7 ms, and the PDI decreased from 0.67 ± 0.14 to 0.53 ± 0.19. These changes helped inhibit CaOx calculus formation.
Kidney stones are mainly composed of inorganic crystals such as calcium oxalate (CaOxa). At present, kidney stones can be detected only after their formation, which causes great suffering for patients. If kidney stones can be detected prior to their formation, they can be effectively prevented, which presents great commercial value. In this paper, we review the differences in urine nanocrystallites between stone-forming patients and healthy controls, as well as the relationship between nanocrystallites in urine and the formation of kidney stones. These differences are microcrystalline morphology, aggregation, size and distribution, chemical composition, Zeta potential and stability. The results showed that the formation of kidney stones is closely related to the nature of nanocrystallites. Through the regulation of the physical and chemical properties of nanocrystallites, the formation and recurrence of kidney stones are possibly inhibited.
This study aimed to analyse the components of nanocrystallites in urines of patients with uric acid (UA) stones. X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM), fast Fourier transformation (FFT) of HRTEM, and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) were performed to analyse the components of these nanocrystallites. XRD and FFT showed that the main component of urinary nanocrystallites was UA, which contains a small amount of calcium oxalate monohydrate and phosphates. EDS showed the characteristic absorption peaks of C, O, Ca and P. The formation of UA stones was closely related to a large number of UA nanocrystallites in urine. A combination of HRTEM, FFT, EDS and XRD analyses could be performed accurately to analyse the components of urinary nanocrystallites.
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