Welcome to the Nizar Lab

Our lab studies the effect of obesity and diabetes on kidney function and its implications for blood pressure and electrolyte levels in the body. Over years, obesity and diabetes cause progressive damage to the kidney, resulting in chronic kidney disease and eventual kidney failure. Well before that, however, they also distort the primary role of a healthy kidney, to maintain the balance of water, electrolytes, and other chemicals to allow the body to function normally. 

We focus on two questions:

How does obesity and diabetes alter the kidney response to diuretics (common drugs prescribed for high blood pressure and swelling)? These drugs act to block molecular transporters and channels in the kidney that reabsorb electrolytes from the fluid that eventually becomes urine back into the body. Variability in the efficacy of these drugs is well-described and may also change within the same patient over time. Understanding why this happens would be a useful tool for physicians caring for these patients.

How does obesity and diabetes alter the autonomic nervous system's regulation of kidney function? The autonomic nervous system connects the kidney to the brain and integrates its function with many other organs to control blood pressure, electrolyte balance, energy balance, and many other critical bodily functions.

Jonathan Nizar

Jonathan Nizar, MD

Assistant Professor of Internal Medicine - Nephrology
Email: jonathan-nizar@uiowa.edu

Selected Publications

  • Nizar, J. M. (2020). Invited Editorial for Physiological Reports (PHY2-2020-04-0157.R2) “Physiological variations of blood pressure according to gender and age among healthy young black Africans aged between 18 to 30 years in Côte d’Ivoire, West Africa”. (Vols. 8). (19) Physiological Reports. DOI: 10.14814/phy2.14616.
  • Nizar, J. M., Shepard, B. D., Vo, V. T. & Bhalla, V. (2018). Renal tubule insulin receptor modestly promotes elevated blood pressure and markedly stimulates glucose reabsorption. JCI insight 3 (16). DOI: 10.1172/jci.insight.95107.
  • Nizar, J. M., Bouby, N., Bankir, L. & Bhalla, V. (2018). Improved protocols for the study of urinary electrolyte excretion and blood pressure in rodents: Use of gel food and stepwise changes in diet composition. American Journal of Physiology - Renal Physiology 314 (6) F1129-F1137. DOI: 10.1152/ajprenal.00474.2017.
  • Nizar, J. M. & Bhalla, V. (2018). Insights from direct renal insulin infusion: A new hammer for an age-old nail. (Vols. 314). (5), pp. F926-F927. American Journal of Physiology - Renal Physiology. DOI: 10.1152/ajprenal.00532.2017.
  • Nizar, J. M. & Bhalla, V. (2017). Molecular Mechanisms of Sodium-Sensitive Hypertension in the Metabolic Syndrome. (Vols. 19). (8) Current Hypertension Reports. DOI: 10.1007/s11906-017-0759-5.
  • Nizar, J. M., Dong, W., McClellan, R. B., Labarca, M., Zhou, Y., Wong, J., Goens, D. G., Zhao, M., Velarde, N., Bernstein, D., Pellizzon, M., Satlin, L. M. & Bhalla, V. (2016). Na+-sensitive elevation in blood pressure is ENaC independent in diet-induced obesity and insulin resistance. American Journal of Physiology - Renal Physiology 310 (9) F812-F820. DOI: 10.1152/ajprenal.00265.2015.
  • Labarca, M., Nizar, J. M., Walczak, E. M., Dong, W., Pao, A. C. & Bhalla, V. (2015). Harvest and primary culture of the murine aldosterone-sensitive distal nephron. American Journal of Physiology - Renal Physiology 308 (11) F1306-F1315. DOI: 10.1152/ajprenal.00668.2014.
  • Tan, E. W., Nizar, J. M., Carrera-G, E. & Fortune, E. S. (2005). Electrosensory interference in naturally occurring aggregates of a species of weakly electric fish, Eigenmannia virescens. Behavioural Brain Research 164 (1) 83-92. DOI: 10.1016/j.bbr.2005.06.014.