Mitochondrial DNA copy number is associated with mortality and infections in a large cohort of patients with chronic kidney disease.

Damage of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) with reduction in copy number has been proposed as a biomarker for mitochondrial dysfunction and oxidative stress. Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is associated with increased mortality and risk of cardiovascular disease, but the underlying mechanisms remain incompletely understood. Here we investigated the prognostic role of mtDNA copy number for cause-specific mortality in 4812 patients from the German Chronic Kidney Disease study, an ongoing prospective observational national cohort study of patients with CKD stage G3 and A1-3 or G1-2 with overt proteinuria (A3) at enrollment.

Source: Kidney International - May 8, 2019 Category: Urology & Nephrology Authors: Federica Fazzini;, Claudia Lamina, Liane Fendt, Ulla T. Schultheiss, Fruzsina Kotsis, Andrew A. Hicks, Heike Meiselbach, Hansi Weissensteiner, Lukas Forer, Vera Krane, Kai-Uwe Eckardt, Anna K öttgen, Florian Kronenberg, the GCKD Investigators Tags: Clinical Investigation Source Type: research