Mitochondrial Function in Diabetic Kidney Disease: Insights from Targeting Mitochondrial Pore-forming Cell Death Proteins

Diabetic kidney disease is one of the many complications that may develop in association with diabetes. Whilst lowering blood sugar and blood pressure can help prevent the loss of kidney function, additional therapies are still required. Previous studies have demonstrated that mitochondria become dysfunctional in the diabetic kidney, however, the present findings suggest that kidney mitochondria retain some capacity to adapt to the early challenges of diabetes. Further, by investigating the role of mitochondrial cell death proteins it was determined that a distinct approach will be required to improve kidney mitochondrial health in diabetes, due to their unique metabolic profile.