AUGUSTA, Ga., May 27 (UPI) -- When one kidney is removed from the body, the remaining kidney can compensate for the loss as an increased flow of amino acids causes it to grow in size, according to a new study.
"Everybody thinks it makes sense that the kidney gets bigger, but how does the remaining kidney even know the other kidney is gone?" said Dr. Jian-Kang Chen, a pathologist and kidney researcher at the Medical College of Georgia at Georgia Regents University, in a press release. "What is the signal this remaining kidney has sensed and how does this signal get transmitted to make the cells forming the kidney's nephrons (filtering units) get bigger?"