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Volume 4,Issue 2

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17 March 2026
Identification of Mitochondria-related Genes in Renal Tubular Epithelial Cells of Chronic Kidney Disease
Bosheng Luo ,  Xue Hu ,  Yingzhuo Li ,  Yang Wang ,  Jiaping Wang
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1 Department of Radiology, Second Affiliated Hospital of Kunming Medical University, Kunming 650101, Yunnan, China,
UR 2026 , 4(1), 27–41; https://doi.org/10.26689/ur.v4i1.14246
© 2026 by the Authors. Licensee Whioce Publishing, Singapore. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License ( https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ )
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Abstract

Background: Mitochondria treatment has a broad application prospect in relieving CKD. This study’s objective was to employ bioinformatics and experimental strategies to identify and validate the Mitochondria-related genes and CKD association induced by TGF-β1. Methods: 266 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were identified in GSE66494 database from GEO. Then we picked 1136 mitochondria-related genes which were from Mitocart3.0 database for obtaining intersecting genes between the former and the latter. Subsequently, the intersecting genes were analyzed by Gene Ontology (GO), Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) axis enrichment assessments and Gene Set Enrichment Analysis (GSEA). Furthermore, we did Immune invasion assessment and a Protein-Protein Interaction (PPI) axis was conducted. Finally, the gene expression levels of some intersecting genes with the most abundant connections in control and TGF-β1 groups, as evidenced by reverse transcription-quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-QPCR) analysis. Results: 26 intersecting genes among DEGs and mitochondria-related genes were identified. GO and KEGG enrichment analysis demonstrated biological processes namely small molecule catabolic, response to peptide hormone, hormone metabolic, organic acid catabolic and carboxylic acid catabolic processes are significantly affected, then a lot of intersecting genes were mainly concentrated in processes like the small molecule catabolic, response to peptide hormone, hormone metabolic, organic acid catabolic processes and so on. Gene Set Enrichment Analysis demonstrated that DEG was concentrated in mitochondrial related gene expression, mitochondrial autophagy, mitochondrial electron chain transmission, Jak/Stat signaling pathway regulation, histone H2A ubiquitination, and cell cycle pathways, Protein-Protein Interaction (PPI) network demonstrated these intersecting genes interacted with each another. Finally, via RT-QPCR evaluation, we revealed that the four gene expressions with the most connections were substantially reduced, relative to the normal group. Conclusion: In conclusion, the present study aimed to indicated that during the process of a global transcriptional reprogramming in TGF-β1 ­induced CKD, mitochondria-related genes plays a significant role. Mitochondria-related genes were strongly upregulated by treatment and then to reduce CKD.

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