Nephrons articles from across Nature Portfolio

Calcium reabsorption along the nephron is essential for calcium homeostasis and whole-body electrolyte balance. Here, Staruschenko et al. highlight signalling pathways and molecules involved in renal calcium handling in health and disease, and discuss progress in the integration of systems-level and molecular understanding of calcium transport and regulation.

In this Review, the authors examine the biophysical and biomechanical properties that influence podocyte physiology as they integrate and adapt to stimuli from their dynamic environment within the glomerular capillaries. The authors also discuss how dysregulation and loss of biomechanical resilience in podocytes can contribute to kidney disease.

In the kidney, maintaining permeability of the filtration barrier is critical. Here, Sachs W. et al show that homeostasis of podocytes and glomerular endothelial cells relies on differing proteasome constitutions which orchestrate endocytic activity in addition to protein degradation.

Renal nanomedicines may hold promise for the detection and treatment of a variety of kidney diseases. This Review describes how our understanding of the physiological principles that regulate the glomerular filtration, tubular secretion, luminal tubular uptake and re-elimination of nanoparticles in the kidneys may facilitate the selective targeting of nanomedicines to specific segments of the nephron.

Several publications from 2023 have substantiated the importance of altered NAD synthesis in kidney injury and disease progression. Now, NAD deficiency has been linked to the release of mitochondrial RNA and activation of pathways that induce inflammation. Another enzyme that governs mitochondrial function, PCK1, has also now been linked to kidney disease.

Kidney donation and chronic kidney disease are associated with an increased risk of pre-eclampsia. A recent study in pregnant uninephrectomized mice provides new insights into the mechanisms that underlie these associations and potential therapeutic strategies.

A new study used metabolic tracing of the three main carbon sources (glucose, glutamine and lipids) on cultured slices of mouse kidneys to identify the dynamic metabolic changes that occur after injury in different segments of the kidney tubule at the single-cell level.