Role of AST120 for Sarcopenia Prevention in Pre-dialysis Chronic Kidney Disease

Skeletal muscle atrophy, referred to as sarcopenia, and impaired physical performance are accompanied in chronic kidney disease patients during disease progression. Decreased physical performance derived from sarcopenia precipitates poor prognostic influence in the clinical outcome, as reported in previous studies showing correlations between poor physical performance, poor quality of life, poor renal prognosis, and mortality. Therefore, maintaining physical performance is mandatory to improve the prognosis of chronic kidney disease patients. AST-120 is an oral absorbent capsule designed to remove circulating indoxyl sulfate, a uremic toxin. As indoxyl sulfate is reported to cause mitochondrial dysfunction in skeletal muscle, AST-120 contributes to the recovery of mitochondrial function by reducing indoxyl sulfate. In addition, AST-120 is reported to delay the initiation of dialysis and the decrease of glomerular filtration rate and the increase of serum creatinine level. However, the effect of AST-120 on sarcopenia in pre-dialysis patients have not been reported. This study is to investigate the effect of AST-120 on sarcopenia prevention in pre-dialysis chronic kidney disease patients.