Treating patients with the healthy bacteria may be an effective way of reducing their risk of repeatedly developing painful kidney stones. People naturally carrying the bacterium Oxalobacter formigenes were found to be 70% less likely to have problems. Researchers at Boston University, in the US, are now investigating the possibility of using the bacteria as a "probiotic" treatment.
The study features in the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology. Kidney stones are small, hard lumps formed of waste products contained in the urine. They normally range in size from a grain of sand to a pearl. Up to 80% of kidney stones are predominately composed of a compound called calcium oxalate.
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