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RecruitingNCT06989320Updated Aug 27, 2026

Endogenous Oxalate Synthesis in Idiopathic Calcium Oxalate Kidney Stone Disease

An interventional study of Low-oxalate diet and glycolate dosing and Oral glycolate dosing in Kidney Stones, Kidney Calculi and Urolithiasis, sponsored by University of Alabama at Birmingham. Recruiting at 2 sites in United States. Open to participants aged 18 Years to 80 Years, including healthy volunteers. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2026-08-27.

Sponsored by University of Alabama at Birmingham · Not applicable, Interventional, and Basic science

From the registry’s dates

  • Started May 2025; still recruiting 1 year 5 months later.
Phase
Not applicable
Study type
Interventional
Enrollment
80
Allocation
Non-randomized
Ages
18 Years to 80 Years
Sex
All
01

Study summary

The goal of this clinical trial study is to test if patients with idiopathic calcium oxalate kidney stones have an increased production of oxalate by the body, which would lead to increased urinary excretion of oxalate.

The study will recruit adult patients with a history of calcium oxalate kidney stones and healthy volunteers without kidney stones.

Participants will

ingest fixed diets containing low amounts of oxalate for 5 days ingest a soluble form of glycolate and vitamin C collect urine, blood, stool during the dietary and oral dosing portions of the study and also collect breath sample during the oral glycolate test

Read the detailed description

In this study the investigators propose to measure the production of oxalate by the body (endogenous oxalate synthesis), after equilibration on a low oxalate diet (\<60 mg oxalate/day, 600-800 mg calcium/day) and estimate the importance of vitamin C and glycolate metabolism to oxalate production in both Calcium Oxalate Kidney Stone patients and matched controls by oral dosings of those two substances.

Phase 1. Screening and low-oxalate diet 24-hr urinary excretions. Between the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) and the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center (UTSW), the study will enroll 40 subjects with idiopathic Calcium Oxalate Kidney Stone (20 Males/20 Females) and 40 non-kidney stone forming controls (20 Males/20 Females). Participants in the two groups will be matched for age (within 10 yrs) and gender. Screening will include blood complete metabolic profile and two 24-hour urine specimens collected at home on self-choice diets and anthropometric measurements.

Participants will then ingest the controlled low-oxalate (\<60 mg/day) diet for 5 consecutive days and collect two 24-hour urines after 2 days of dietary equilibration.

Phase 2. Oxalate production and 13C-glycolate dosing tests. On Day 5, participants will arrive after an overnight fast in the research unit to undergo the oral 13C-glycolate dosing test. After a 1-hour baseline urine collection, they will ingest an oral load containing 0.5 mg/kg body weight of 13C-glycolate, dissolved in bottled water. For the next 7 hours, blood and urine will be collected hourly, and breath as more time points. They will remain on the fixed diet for 24 hours with a meal 7 hours post-load, and dinner at home 12 hours post-load. They will collect the remainder of their 24-hour urine at home.

Phase 3. Oxalate production and 13C-ascorbic acid dosing tests. After 1 day of equilibration on the same low-oxalate diet, participants will arrive after an overnight fast in the research unit to provid eone blood and one urine sample and then ingest an oral dose of 13C-ascorbic acid (0.75 mg/kg), return home and continue to ingest the low-oxalate diet. The next morning, participants will arrive after an overnight fast in the research unit. For the next 7 hours, blood and urine will be collected hourly. They will remain on the fixed diet for 24 hours with a meal at the end of the visit.

02

Conditions studied

  • Kidney Stones
  • Kidney Calculi
  • Urolithiasis
  • Urolithiasis, Calcium Oxalate
  • Nephrolithiasis
  • Nephrolithiasis, Calcium Oxalate
  • Oxalate Urolithiasis
  • Healthy
  • Healthy Volunteer

Keywords

  • oxalate synthesis
03

In context

Kidney Calculi

509 studies on the registry are indexed under Kidney Calculi; 146 are open to participants now.

This study's planned enrollment of 80 is close to the median of 86 across 391 interventional studies indexed under Kidney Calculi.

Browse Kidney Calculi studies →

Lead sponsor

University of Alabama at Birmingham is the lead sponsor of 1,421 studies on the registry; 277 are open to participants now.

Of its 164 completed or terminated interventional studies of FDA-regulated products, 130 (79%) have results posted.

Counted across the registry records on this site, refreshed daily.

04

Who can participate

Ages eligible
18 Years to 80 Years
Sexes eligible
All
Accepts healthy volunteers
Yes

Go through the criteria one by one — yes, no or not sure — and take the list to your doctor or the study team. Kept in this browser only.

Inclusion criteria

  • age 18-80 yrs
  • > 18.5 kg/m2
  • Normal fasting serum electrolytes on comprehensive metabolic profile
  • Willing to ingest fixed diets
  • Willing to stop supplements (vitamins including vitamin C, calcium (citrate or carbonate) and other minerals, herbal supplements, nutritional aids, probiotics) for 2 weeks before start and during study.
  • For stone formers: first time or recurrent Calcium Oxalate stone former. Composition of most recent stone ≥ 50% calcium oxalate if available, uric acid component \<20%

Exclusion criteria

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Chronic Kidney Disease stage 4-5
  • Primary hyperoxaluria, Enteric (secondary) hyperoxaluria
  • Liver, bowel, endocrine or renal diseases (other than idiopathic Calcium Oxalate kidney stones) or any other condition that may influence the absorption, transport or urinary excretion of ions, which will compromise the interpretation of results, including: Cystic fibrosis, Celiac disease, Cystinuria, Uric acid stone former, Nephrotic syndrome, Sarcoidosis, Renal tubular acidosis, Primary hyperparathyroidism, Neurogenic bladder, Urinary diversion, Chronic diarrhea, Bariatric surgery, Inflammatory bowel disease
  • Pregnancy or breast-feeding
  • Incompatible dietary requirements with the study, food allergies or intolerance to any of the foods in study menus
  • Active or treatment for malignancy within 12 months prior to screening
  • Utilization of medication
  • Uncontrolled hypertension or diabetes
  • Diabetes type 1
Terms in these criteria, in plain language(3)

Underlined terms in the criteria open these too. Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.

BMI (body mass index)

Weight in kilograms divided by height in metres squared. Example: 70 kg and 1.75 m gives 70 ÷ (1.75 × 1.75) ≈ 22.9.

What counts as overweight or obesity differs between countries (some use lower cut-offs), so go by the range the study states.

Cancer (malignancy)

Malignancy means cancer. Criteria about another or earlier malignancy ask whether you have had a different cancer, usually within a set number of years.

Some are commonly allowed, such as treated skin cancers other than melanoma and early cancers removed completely — check the exceptions this study lists.

Immunosuppression

A weakened immune system. It can come from an illness, such as HIV or some blood cancers, or from medicines that turn the immune system down, for example after an organ transplant or for an autoimmune disease; steroids at higher doses count.

Read whether the line is about a condition or about medicines, and which medicines and doses it means.

05

Study design

Phase
Not applicable
Primary purpose
Basic science
Allocation
Non-randomized
Intervention model
Parallel assignment
Masking
None (open label)
Enrollment
80 participants (estimated)

Study arms

  • Experimental
    Idiopathic Calcium Oxalate Kidney Stone Patients

    Low oxalate fixed diets. oral glycolate and ascorbic acid administration

    Dietary Supplement: Low-oxalate diet and glycolate dosing · Dietary Supplement: Oral glycolate dosing · Dietary Supplement: Oral 13C- ascorbic acid dosing

  • Active comparator
    Healthy non-kidney stone forming individuals

    Low oxalate fixed diets. oral glycolate and ascorbic acid administration

    Dietary Supplement: Low-oxalate diet and glycolate dosing · Dietary Supplement: Oral glycolate dosing · Dietary Supplement: Oral 13C- ascorbic acid dosing

Interventions

  • Dietary supplementLow-oxalate diet and glycolate dosing

    Low-oxalate diet 4 days of fixed eucaloric diet with low oxalate (\<60 mg/day), normal calcium content (600-1000 mg/day)

  • Dietary supplementOral glycolate dosing

    Oral 13C-glycolate dosing (0.5 mg/kg)

  • Oral 13C- ascorbic acid dosing (0.75 mg/kg)

06

What researchers measure

Primary outcomes

  1. Estimated endogenous oxalate synthesis (oxalate mg/day)

    Basal rate of endogenous oxalate synthesis estimated by repeat fasted hourly urine collections (mg/day)

    Time frame: 1 day

Secondary outcomes

  1. 24-hour urinary oxalate excretion on low oxalate diet

    mean 24-hour urinary oxalate excretion on the low oxalate diet (mg/day)

    Time frame: 2 days

  2. contribution of ascorbic acid breakdown to urinary oxalate excretion

    contribution of ascorbic acid breakdown to oxalate synthesis (%)

    Time frame: 2 days

Other outcomes

  1. Contribution of glycolate metabolism to urinary oxalate

    Proportion of 13C-glycolate orally dosed that is metabolized to urinary 13C-oxalate in the fasted stated (%)

    Time frame: 1 day

07

Study locations

1 of 2 sites recruiting
  • United States, Alabama University of Alabama at Birmingham
    Birmingham, Alabama 35294, United States
    Recruiting
  • University of Texas South Western Medical Center
    Dallas, Texas 75390, United States
    Not yet recruiting
08

References and documents

Individual participant data

Plan to share: No

No publications or documents are linked to this record.

09

Updates

Tracking since Sep 25, 2026
No changes since tracking began. The registry record was last updated on Aug 27, 2026, before this site started recording changes on Sep 25, 2026. Its history is on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗
10

Registry details

Key details

Study ID
NCT06989320
Collaborators
University of Texas, Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas, National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK)
Responsible party
Sonia Fargue (Associate professor, University of Alabama at Birmingham) — Principal investigator
First posted
May 25, 2025
Start date
May 27, 2025
Primary completion
Dec 31, 2030 (estimated)
Completion
Dec 31, 2031 (estimated)
Last update
Aug 27, 2026

Study contacts

Sonia Fargue, PhD
Contact
sfargue@uabmc.edu
205-975-6932
Sonia Fargue, PhD
principal investigator · University of Alabama at Birmingham

Oversight

Data monitoring committee
Yes
FDA-regulated drug
No
FDA-regulated device
No
View the source record on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗

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