A new study provides evidence of an antibiotic-responsive kidney microbiota that may influence the formation of kidney stones. Jose Agudelo and colleagues identified bacteria in mouse kidney samples, with a higher density in the medulla than in the cortex. Using RNA fluorescence in situ hybridization analysis, they also found bacterial DNA in human kidney samples; species richness was greater in the glomeruli than in the tubules.

The researchers suggest that use of antibiotics might alter the kidney microbiota, and lead to dysbiosis and the proliferation of pathogenic bacteria that alter the local chemical environment and thereby facilitate CaOx lithogenesis.