PKM and acute kidney injury: During the acute ischemia phase of AKI, gluconeogenic enzyme levels (such as fructose-1,6-bisphosphatase (FBP1), phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase (PCK1), PCK2) are decreased, while mRNA levels of glycolytic enzymes (such as HK1, PKM, PFK) are relatively increased, leading to impaired glucose production and lactate clearance (Legouis et al., 2020) (Figure 3).