Gut Microbes Facilitate Melamine-Induced Kidney Toxicity.

Certain gut microbes convert melamine into toxic cyanuric acid, leading to the formation of crystals that develop into kidney stones, report researchers in a new Science Translational Medicine study . Tests in rats showed that the presence of microbes of theKlebsiella family facilitated the conversion of melamine. Antibiotic suppression of gut microbial activity attenuated melamine-induced toxicity and decreased melamine excretion. Melamine poisoning was widely publicized in 2008 after kidney injury developed in children who were fed melamine-tainted milk in China.