The Art of Pain: Geobiology Dissolves Away the Agony of Kidney Stones

This a calcium oxalate (CaOx) human kidney stone, cut into a wafer-thin (20 µm-thick) slice mounted to a glass slide and analyzed under a microscope. Confocal laser scanning microscopy (LSM) excites inorganic (mineral) and organic (living material) matter, which emit distinct wavelengths of light to reveal their composition and distribution. These previously unrecorded patterns are in stark contrast to previous assumptions that kidney stones are insoluble lumps of rock. Instead, our results indicate that kidney stones are dynamic formations that undergo ongoing multiple events of dissolution and recrystallization. In this image, finely-layered CaOx crystals are dissolved to form canyon-like void spaces (pink), which are later filled with newer crystal growth (dark blue). These patterns indicate that as much as 75% of the original kidney stone material has been dissolved and later recrystallized. These observations have been synthesized into a "historical sequence of events" (HSE) that establish a previously unimagined roadmap for new treatment options. Future research will utilize the HSE to strategically dissolve kidney stones within the kidney (in vivo), averting the need for the present treatments of painful passage or invasive surgical procedures. The goal is to both literally and figuratively dissolve away the excruciating pain of kidney stones!Ope