NRF1 and chronic kidney disease: To assess whether PBMCs isolated from CKD patients undergoing PD treatment showed an alteration of the cellular machinery associated to the oxidative energy metabolism, we measured by RT-PCR the expression level of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma coactivator 1 alpha (PGC1-α) and Nuclear respiratory factor 1 (NRF-1), two genes encoding, respectively, for a transcriptional coactivator and a transcription factor that together stimulate the expression of a broad set of nuclear genes involved in mitochondrial biogenesis and functions.