PIONEERING RESEARCH GIVES HOPE TO CKD PATIENTS
Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is one of the most common chronic conditions facing patients in Scotland today.
Dr Luke Baker
A
ccording to the Scottish Public Health Observatory, in 2018/19, the prevalence of CKD was 3.08 per 100 people registered,
while, in 2020, 236 patients, resident in Scotland, received a kidney transplant.
Now, researchers from the University of Leicester have, for the first time, developed a model using human muscle cells to identify factors that contribute to differences in muscle mass between patients with CKD and non-CKD patients.
CKD patients often experience skeletal muscle loss, leading to reductions in muscle mass, strength, and function. When there is muscle loss, weakness may be experienced and physical activity limited, leading to frailty. This not only impacts quality of life, but also increases the risk of illness and death.
Protein and muscle loss The processes that lead to muscle loss in CKD patients are not well understood. Studies in humans are complicated by external factors, such as diet and exercise, making it hard for scientists to pinpoint the causes of muscle loss.
Currently available research does, however, suggest that the process through which our cells make protein (protein synthesis), breakdown of proteins (protein degradation), and anabolic resistance (where muscle creation and maintenance are disrupted), play a big part in the build-up or loss of muscle mass.
The human muscle cell model With funding provided by Kidney Research UK, Dr Luke Baker and Dr Emma Watson and their team developed a model using human muscle cells to gain a more accurate understanding of the causes of muscle loss in individuals living with CKD.
To do this, patients aged between 50 and 60 (the most common age of pre-dialysis CKD patients), were recruited. Half of the patients had CKD, but were not undergoing dialysis; the other half did not have CKD. A pea-sized piece of muscle was taken from patient’s upper thigh, providing the muscle cells required for the experiments.
Using these human muscle cells, the team explored the effects of protein synthesis and
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