Renal Failure

Renal Metabolism in Health and Disease

The kidney is a metabolically active organ essential for maintaining systemic homeostasis through the regulation of electrolyte balance, acid–base status, and nutrient handling. To support these demanding functions, renal cells exhibit specialized and compartmentalized metabolic programs. Distinct nephron segments engage different combinations of pathways, such as fatty acid oxidation, glutamine utilization, and glycolysis, reflecting their structural and functional diversity.

Recent advances in multi-omics and single-cell technologies have deepened our understanding of the kidney’s molecular and metabolic heterogeneity. These studies reveal that metabolic reprogramming, the adaptive shift in energy metabolism under stress or injury, is not merely a byproduct of disease but a key mechanism driving renal dysfunction and pathogenesis.

This Article Collection seeks to showcase advances in renal metabolic research and their implications for kidney function, injury, and recovery. It aims to bridge basic and translational insights to foster the development of new diagnostic and therapeutic strategies.

Kidney diseases are common worldwide and create a substantial medical and economic burden. Yet we still do not fully understand why the kidney becomes vulnerable to damage, why some injuries fail to resolve, or what determines the potential for recovery. These gaps make it difficult to design more effective strategies to prevent disease progression and improve patient outcomes.

Recent research shows that metabolic regulation is closely linked to many aspects of kidney health. Shifts in metabolic activity can influence how renal cells function under stress and may shape broader tissue responses during both injury and repair. Although these connections are increasingly recognized, many fundamental questions about their roles in human disease remain unanswered.

A clearer understanding of renal metabolism is therefore essential for identifying processes that maintain kidney function and for revealing new opportunities to guide therapeutic development.

This collection will encompass experimental, translational, and clinical studies exploring renal metabolism in both health and disease. Subtopics include mitochondrial bioenergetics and oxidative stress; glucose, lipid, and amino acid metabolism in renal cells; metabolic adaptation in kidney disease; and the impact of uremic toxins and therapeutic interventions on renal metabolic pathways. Additional themes will cover systemic metabolic–renal interactions, biomarker discovery, and novel pharmacologic or nutritional strategies targeting metabolic dysfunction.

Article Collection key terms:

• Renal Metabolism
• Metabolic Reprogramming
• Kidney Disease
• Multi-omics
• Mitochondrial Dysfunction

Article Collection Guest Advisors:

Dr. Satoshi Shimada is an Instructor in the Department of Physiology at the Medical College of Wisconsin. He earned both an MD and a PhD from Tohoku University in Japan. His research focuses on how renal hemodynamics, vascular regulation, and metabolic pathways influence kidney function and cardiovascular health, using advanced physiological measurements in conscious rodents integrated with multi-omics and functional analyses.

Dr. Lashodya Dissanayake is a postdoctoral scholar at the University of South Florida, with an overall research goal of understanding how renal pathophysiology affects cardiovascular diseases. She has also participated in numerous projects related to renal physiology, including the investigation of uric acid homeostasis, amino acid metabolism, purinergic signaling, circadian rhythm regulation, ion channel regulation in salt-sensitive hypertension, autosomal recessive polycystic kidney disease, and diabetes. Dr. Dissanayake earned a medical degree from Kursk State Medical University in Russia and a PhD in physiology with a focus on basic and translational sciences from the Medical College of Wisconsin.

­­All manuscripts submitted to this Article Collection will undergo a full peer-review; the Guest Advisors for this Collection will not be handling the manuscripts (unless they are an Editorial Board member).

Please review the journal scope and author submission instructions prior to submitting a manuscript.

The deadline for submitting manuscripts is 1st October 2026.

Please contact Rebecca Kearns at [email protected] with any queries and discount codes regarding this Article Collection.

Please be sure to select the appropriate Article Collection from the drop-down menu in the submission system.

The Guest Advisors for this Article Collection have declared no conflict of interests