Rationale, design and baseline characteristics of the TRANSCEND-CKD trial of retatrutide in patients with chronic kidney disease

What Was Tested

The paper reports a study of Retatrutide, published as a clinical study.

The primary objective is to evaluate the effect of retatrutide versus placebo on change in measured glomerular filtration rate (mGFR) by iohexol clearance from baseline to Week 24.

Why It Was Studied

Retatrutide may also address key chronic kidney disease (CKD)-related pathophysiological pathways.

Mechanism-of-action studies are needed to understand its effects on kidney function.

Who Took Part

By PubMed's age tags, the people studied were adults, middle-aged adults and older adults, both men and women.

Additional objectives include changes in magnetic resonance imaging-assessed kidney hemodynamic and volumetric measurements, including perirenal and renal sinus fat.

How the Study Was Run

The researchers set it up as a randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled study.

Random assignment meant chance, not the researchers, decided who got Retatrutide and who got the comparison, which limits bias.

As a double-blind Retatrutide study, the assignments were hidden from both participants and investigators until the end.

A placebo (an inactive look-alike) gave the Retatrutide group a baseline to be compared against.

What Was Measured

PubMed files the paper under topics including Renal Insufficiency, Chronic, Glomerular Filtration Rate, Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2, Obesity, Glycated Hemoglobin, Clinical Trials, Phase II as Topic and Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic.

Author keywords: chronic kidney disease, glucagon, incretins, iohexol-measured GFR and retatrutide.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled study of Retatrutide.

The abstract goes on to report its results in about 8 sentences; this page does not restate them, so read the paper for the findings and their limits.

The publication is from 2026 (Nephrology, dialysis, transplantation : official publication of the European Dialysis and Transplant Association - European Renal Association), a journal based in England.

More context: the Retatrutide compound page, all human trials.