MSTN and chronic kidney disease: As CKD rises circulating inflammatory cytokines, we hypothesized that they may affect myostatin expression and function through activation of NF-κB. We found a significant increase in mRNA expression of TNF-α (P < 0.05; Figure 7(a)) and its receptor TNF-R1 protein (P < 0.05; Figure 7(b)) in muscle of CKD when compared to sham rats.