Picture 1: Opening ceremony.  From left to right: Dr. Benardo Rodriguez-Iturbe (1st Luis Hernando Award), Dr. Francisco Ortega-Suarez (Vice- President, Fundación Renal Iñigo Alvarez de Toledo). Dr. Belen Prado ( Vice-Counselor for Health, Madrid Local Government), Dr. Luis Hernando, President of the Council, Institute “Reina Sofía” for renal research), Dr. Angel L. Martin de Francisco, (President of the Spanish Society of Nephrology) Dr. Jorge Cannata (President of ERA-EDTA), and Dr. José M. Mato (President, Institute “Reina Sofía” for renal research).

The first session was devoted to “Diabetic Nephropathy”. This session was chaired by Dr. José Miguel López-Novoa (Salamanca, Spain) and Dr. Fernando De Álvaro (Madrid, Spain). Dr. Peter ten Dijke (Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, Netherlands), lectured about: “TGF-beta signalling alteration in disease”. The topic of Dr. Michel Mauer (University of Minnesota Medical School, Minneapolis, USA) was “Cellular basis of diabetic nephropathy using the skin fibroblast as a model”. Dr. Josep M. Cruzado (Barcelona, Spain) spoke about “Delayed progression of the experimental diabetic nephropathy by m-TOR inhibitors”. Dr. Juan F. Navarro (Tenerife, Spain) lectured on “Inflammation as contributing mechanism of progression of diabetes mellitus 2 nephropathy”. Finally, Dr. Alberto Martínez Castelao (Barcelona, Spain) spoke about “Why are we not able to stop progression of the diabetes mellitus 2 nephropathy? Clinical and social consequences of an « epidemy »”

Picture 2: Chairmen and speakers of session 1 From left to right: Dr. Fernando De Álvaro (chairman) Dr. Juan F. Navarro (speaker),  Dr. Peter ten Dijke (speaker), Dr. Michel Mauer (speaker), Dr. Alberto Martínez Castelao (speaker), Dr. Josep Mª Cruzado ( speaker) and Dr. José M. López-Novoa (Chairman).

The second session was devoted to “Erythropoietin: Hormone and Drug” and was chaired by Dr. José M. Portolés (Madrid, Spain) and Dr. José Ballarín (Barcelona, Spain). The first speaker was Dr. Manuel Ortiz de Landázuri (Madrid, Spain). The title of his conference was “Hipoxia-inducible factor (HIF): a general mechanism of response to low oxygen concentrations”. Dr. Peter J. Ratcliffe (Oxford, U.K.) lectured on “Mechanisms of regulation of erythropoietin synthesis”. Dr. Kai-Uwe Eckardt (Erlangen, Germany) disserted on “Erithropoetin and non terminal chronic renal disease” whereas Dr. Pedro Aljama (Cordoba, Spain) spoke on "Erythropoiesis-stimulating agents: are all similar?"
 
The topic of the third session was “A new view of the role of aldosterone in cardiovascular disease: Beyond the distal nephron”. This session was chaired by Dr. Luis Hernando, President of the “Reina Sofía” Institute of the Renal Foundation Iñigo Alvarez de Toledo and Dr. Javier Díez (Pamplona, Spain). The title of the conference of the first speaker, Dr. Bernard Swynghedauw (Paris. France) was “Non epithelial actions of aldosterone”. Next speaker, Dr. Vicente Lahera (Madrid, Spain) lectured on “A role for aldosterone in vascular injury in primary hypertension?”. Finally, Dr. Javier Díez lectured on “Heart failure, myocardial remodelling and aldosterone”.

Picture  3: Chairmen and speakers of sessions 2 and 3 From left to right:  Dr. Manuel Ortiz de Landázuri (speaker), Dr. Vicente Lahera (speaker), Dr. Javier Díez  (speaker and chairman), Dr. Benardo Rodriguez-Iturbe (1st Luis Hernando Award), Dr. Bernard Swynghedauw (speaker), Dr. Peter J. Ratcliffe (speaker), Dr. Luis Hernando (President of the Council, “Reina Sofía” Institute of the Renal Foundation) and Dr. Jorge Cannata (President of ERA-EDTA).

The average assistance to the sessions was about 100 people, and discussions after each presentation were rather live and animated.

Picture 4:   Dr. Jorge Cannata (President of ERA-EDTA).

Three aspects of the Symposium must be stressed. First, the quality of the speakers. Second, the equilibrium between speakers. With respect to their country, seven were from Spain, four from other countries of the European Union, one from the States, and one from Venezuela. Most of the contributors were linked to European Nephrology, but interesting external contributions were also considered. With respect to their area of activity, five perform mainly basic research, four mixed research, and four clinical research. In consequence, the contents of the conferences were different but complementary, given the possibility of analysing the problems from different points of view. The second aspect to stress is the structure of the sessions. They started systematically with basic conferences, and progressed to the analysis of clinical problems. In fact, this is one of the main objectives on the Symposium, from bench to bedside, to connect the basic knowledge with the applied medicine, to give an added value to clinical activity.

Dr. José M Lopez-Novoa
Dr. Diego Rodriguez-Puyol