Linking transcription to energy: the path to understand kidney injury

The metabolic impairment of kidney tubular cells is a key mechanism underlying the pathophysiology of renal fibrosis. In particular, a drastic reduction in fatty acid oxidation is essentially responsible for the global energy failure occurring in the tubulointerstitial compartment. Piret et al. propose a novel transcriptional regulatory mechanism involving the decrease in the expression of Krüppel-like factor 15 in proximal tubular cells after kidney injury, which results in a major derangement of fatty acid oxidation.