Concentrations of retention solutes in uremia vary over a broad range, from nanograms per liter to grams per liter. Low concentrations are found especially for the middle molecules. A substantial number of molecules are protein bound and/or middle molecules, and many of these exert toxicity and are characterized by a high range of toxic over normal concentration (CU/CN ratio). Hence, uremic retention is a complex problem that concerns many more solutes than the current markers of urea and creatinine alone. This list provides a basis for systematic analytic approaches to map the relative importance of the enlisted families of toxins.

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The uremic syndrome is a complex mixture of organ dysfunctions, which is attributed to the retention of a myriad of compounds that under normal condition are excreted by the healthy kidneys (uremic toxins). In the area of identification and characterization of uremic toxins and in the knowledge of their pathophysiologic importance, major steps forward have been made during recent years. The present article is a review of several of these steps, especially in the area of information about the compounds that could play a role in the development of cardiovascular complications. It is written by those members of the Uremic Toxins Group, which has been created by the European Society for Artificial Organs (ESAO). Each of the 16 authors has written a state of the art in his/her major area of interest.

In this publication, we review the activities of the European Uremic Toxin Work Group (EUTox) in the field of uremic toxin research. Founded in 1999 under the umbrella of the European Society of Artificial Organs (ESAO), and active since 2000, this group focuses essentially on questions related to solute retention and removal during chronic kidney disease, and on the deleterious impact of those solutes on biological/biochemical systems. As of January 1, 2009, the group had met 28 times; it organized the third meeting, "Uremic Toxins in Cardiovascular Disease," which took place in October 2008 in Amiens, France. The current group is composed of 25 members belonging to 23 European research institutions. As of November 1, 2008, in total 69 papers had been published to which at least two different research groups belonging to EUTox have contributed in a collaborative effort. Of these, 40 papers were on original research and eight were specific EUTox reviews or position statements. A website (http://www.eutox.info) summarizes all relevant information concerning the work group. EUTox also developed an interactive uremic toxin database, where concentrations of known toxins are displayed, to be used by researchers in the field. In the future, EUTox intends to continue its focus on bench to bedside research with specific consideration of proteomics, metabonomics, secretomics, and genomics.

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