Transcriptomic response of skeletal muscle to acute aerobic versus combined exercise in chronic kidney disease

Both AE and CE triggered robust inflammatory gene expression responses in CKD skeletal muscle, which may be indicative of early repair processes. Unexpectedly, mitochondrial-related pathways were downregulated at 24h post exercise. In the absence of earlier post exercise timepoints, it is not possible to determine whether these findings reflect impaired mitochondrial adaptation, or instead represent a recovery phase return of mitochondrial gene expression levels to baseline. These results highlight mitochondrial dysfunction may be a potential barrier to effective exercise adaptation and a possible therapeutic target in this population.