Necker Hospital, Paris, France
The symposium was organized by a scientific committee composed of Nobuhiro Sugino and Susumu Takahashi from Nihon University Medical School (Tokyo, Japan) and Jean-Pierre Grünfeld, Nguyen Khoa Man and Tilman Drüeke from Necker Hospital (Paris, France). It took place in the beautiful mountain area of Hakone, Japan.
Three main topics in nephrology were covered at the symposium, extending from research in molecular and cellular biology to clinical investigation.
The first topic was devoted to New aspects of bone and mineral metabolism, with conferences on parathyroid cell hyperplasia (Hideko Tahara, Osaka), clinical experience with calcimimetics (Pablo Ureña, Paris) and bone disease in kidney transplant patients (Marie-Hélène Lafage-Proust, St Etienne).
The second topic was devoted to Genes and the kidney with conferences on the role and potential therapeutic implications of hepatocyte growth factor (Kunio Matsumoto, Osaka), new therapeutic perspectives in the treatment of ADPKD (Bertrand Knebelmann, Paris) and genetic and clinical aspects of cystinosis (Corinne Antignac, Paris).
The third topic was devoted to Progression of chronic renal failure, with conferences on molecular and cellular mechanisms of cell cycle activation in tubular cells (Sei Sasaki, Tokyo), endogenous and exogenous factors in renal disease progression (Gérard Friedlander, Paris) and possible synergism between AT1 receptor antagonists and ACE inhibitors in renal disease (Gabriel Choukroun, Amiens).
In addition, two special lectures were delivered on crush syndrome (Raymond Vanholder, Ghent) and recent findings in dialysis-associated amyloidosis (Fumitake Gejyo, Niigata).
The quality of all the speakers was remarkable, with many lively discussions and numerous exchanges between Japanese nephrologists and mostly French-speaking nephrologists from Europe and also some other non-European countries. This made the meeting a great scientific success. We acknowledge the generous financial and logistic support of Hospal Japan (Mr K. Kihara, Tokyo).