Charité Berlin

Department of Pediatrics
Division of Gastroenterology, Nephrology and Metabolic Medicine
Charitéplatz 1
10117 Berlin, Germany

The Department

The Pediatric Nephrology unit of the Charité Berlin provides comprehensive care for children with kidney disease, including all forms of renal replacement therapy. More than 400 transplantions have been performed since 1971, when hemodialysis and kidney transplantation were introduced for the treatment of children with terminal chronic kidney disease at the Charité. Today, the unit and the associated Children’s Kidney Center of the KfH serve as a referral center for the city of Berlin and a large region of East Germany, with about 3500 patient contacts annually in the outpatient department. As one of the first programs for intensified hemodialysis worldwide, an in-center nocturnal intermittent hemodialysis program was initiated in 2005 to overcome the limitations of conventional hemodialysis.

Our group has conducted numerous clinical and laboratory studies with emphasis on cardiovascular disease in children with chronic kidney disease, prevention of atherosclerosis, non-invasive imaging methods of arterial structure and function, vascular calcification, vitamin D metabolism, lipid metabolism, immunosuppressive therapy of the nephrotic syndrome, and microcirculation in uremia. Basic research conducted by the group has a focus on the function of tight junction proteins in the kidney.

Link: https://kinder-gastroenterologie.charite.de/