MTOR and type 2 diabetes mellitus: However, our previous study found that 8 weeks of high-intensity interval training (60 min/day, five times/week for 8 weeks) exacerbated renal injury and fibrosis in T2DM mice by activating the phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K)/AKT/mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) signaling pathway and upregulating the expression of fibrosis-related proteins (TGF-β1, CTGF, collagen-III, α-SMA) [76].