Chronic kidney disease affects more than 697 million people around the world. In total, it is estimated that 1.2 million people die each year due to this disease, which represents almost 5% of all annual deaths worldwide. Despite the enormous financial and personal burden that this entails, until now the biological mechanisms behind this condition were unknown, due to the structural and functional complexity of the kidney.
This study has uncovered that genes controlling lipid metabolism are switched off when the kidney is chronically damaged. Indeed, the loss of the healthy “signature” in the cells of the proximal tubule is related to estrogen related receptor alpha (ESRRa). To prove on the importance of the role of ESRRa we generated mini-kidneys and showed that when ESRRa was switched back on, the cells of the proximal tubuli of the kidney regain their function. Such observations occurred also in two animal models of chronic kidney damage from our collaborators in the study (University of Pennsylvania).
