Aging and kidney disease.

Kidney is an energy-consuming organ and its function deteriorates according as aging. Various mechanisms for cellular senescence and organ aging have an impact on the initiation and progression of CKD, which includes telomere attrition, genomic instability, stem cell exhaustion, mitochondrial dysfunction, impaired nutrient signaling, inactivation of Sirtuin or Klotho-mediated pathway and renin-angiotensin system activation. Interventions in these pathways have provided therapeutic strategy against CKD. On the other hand, renal dys- function, in turn, affects human aging process. Because of this close relationship between human aging process and CKD, aging phenotype, such as frailty can be used as a clinical marker of the prognosis of CKD as well as of other age-related diseases including cardio- vascular disease and type II diabetes. Amelioration of this aging phenotype can provide a novel therapeutic strategy against CKD for the purpose of providing CKD patients with suc- cessful aging.