Nephrons articles within Nature Communications

Featured

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Cell metabolism plays pivotal roles during kidney embryogenesis. This research shows that glycolysis modulation affects nephron progenitor cells via Acetyl-CoA-modulated pathways, influencing both kidney development, and nephron endowment at birth.

    • Fabiola Diniz
    • , Nguyen Yen Nhi Ngo
    •  & Giovane G. Tortelote

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Kidney stone disease causes significant morbidity and increases in health care utilization. Here, the authors define the spatial molecular landscape and specific pathways contributing to stone-mediated injury in the human renal papilla and identify associated urinary biomarkers.

    • Victor Hugo Canela
    • , William S. Bowen
    •  & Tarek M. El-Achkar

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Maintaining systemic acid-base balance is a central task of the kidneys, but it is still undetermined how acid-base alterations are perceived by the kidney. Here, the authors show that the solute transporter AE4 in β-intercalated cells is an essential part of the renal acid-base sensing mechanism

    • H. Vitzthum
    • , M. Koch
    •  & H. Ehmke

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The slit-diaphragm is a cellular junction that is crucial for blood filtration in the kidney. Kocylowski et al. show that the junction-spanning components are embedded in a protein network for dynamic control of filtration; network disturbance leads to severe filtration defects with proteinuria.

    • Maciej K. Kocylowski
    • , Hande Aypek
    •  & Florian Grahammer

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Polesel et al. visualize plasma protein filtration, uptake and metabolism in the kidneys of living mice in real-time. They reveal coordinated activity of different specialized tubular segments, with major compensatory adaptations occurring in disease states.

    • Marcello Polesel
    • , Monika Kaminska
    •  & Andrew M. Hall

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Meshworks of claudin polymers control the paracellular transport and barrier properties of epithelial tight junctions. Here, the authors show different claudin nanoscale organization principles, finding that claudin segregation enables barrier formation and paracellular ion flux across tight junctions.

    • Hannes Gonschior
    • , Christopher Schmied
    •  & Martin Lehmann

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Salt levels in culture affect the polarisation of Th17 cells, which normally protect the host from fungal and bacterial infections. Here, the authors study patients with salt-losing tubulopathies (SLT) to find that, while Th17 immunity is dampened in SLT patients, their Th17-inducing signaling pathways are intact and can be reinvigorated by exogenous salt.

    • Rhys D. R. Evans
    • , Marilina Antonelou
    •  & Alan D. Salama

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The kidney is vascularized with highly specialized and zonated endothelial cells that are essential for its filtration function. Here, Barry et al. provide a single-cell RNA sequencing analysis of the kidney vasculature that highlights its transcriptional heterogeneity and uncovers pathways important for its development and function.

    • David M. Barry
    • , Elizabeth A. McMillan
    •  & Shahin Rafii

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The glomerular filtration barrier is a complex structure in charge of renal ultrafiltration. Here the authors present a glomerulus-on-a-chip for disease modelling and high-throughput drug screening where human podocytes and human glomerular endothelial cells are separated by an extracellular matrix resembling the in vivo basement membrane.

    • Astgik Petrosyan
    • , Paolo Cravedi
    •  & Stefano Da Sacco

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Sphingomyelin phosphodiesterase acid-like 3b (SMPDL3b) is a lipid raft enzyme known to affect membrane lipid composition. Here, Mitrofanova et al. show that increased expression of SMPDL3b in diabetes impairs insulin signaling and ceramide-1-phosphate (C1P) availability in podocytes, and that C1P supplementation protects mice from diabetic kidney disease.

    • A. Mitrofanova
    • , S. K. Mallela
    •  & A. Fornoni

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Kinase inhibitors used in chemotherapy are known for their adverse effects on kidney physiology. Here, Calizo et al. show that dasatinib is associated with a higher risk of glomerular toxicity compared to other kinase inhibitors, due to deleterious effects on cytoskeletal biomechanics in podocytes.

    • Rhodora C. Calizo
    • , Smiti Bhattacharya
    •  & Evren U. Azeloglu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Nephrogenesis ceases after postnatal day 2 in the mouse or after the 36th week of gestation in humans, but how this is regulated is unclear. Here, the authors identify a role for the RNA-binding protein Lin28 and suppression of let-7 microRNA in regulating the duration of nephrogenesis.

    • Alena V. Yermalovich
    • , Jihan K. Osborne
    •  & George Q. Daley

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Injuries in the embryonal kidney can be repaired by a cell migratory response but how this is regulated at a molecular level is unclear. Here, the authors show in mice that deletion of Cxcl12 and Myc delays pronephros injury repair by changing mitochondrial metabolism and glycolysis.

    • Toma A. Yakulov
    • , Abhijeet P. Todkar
    •  & Gerd Walz

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Patients with diabetic nephropathy suffer from impaired albumin reabsorption by proximal tubular epithelial cells. Here authors use diabetic and transgenic mouse models and in vitro models to show the cause for this lies in the down regulation and internalization of the ion channels, ORAI1-3.

    • Bo Zeng
    • , Gui-Lan Chen
    •  & Shang-Zhong Xu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Nrf2 regulates oxidative and electrophilic stress responses by modulating the expression of enzymes involved in detoxification pathways. Here Suzukiet al. show that Nrf2 activation in early tubular development promotes nephrogenic diabetes insipidus by regulating aquaporin 2 expression and trafficking and water permeability.

    • Takafumi Suzuki
    • , Shiori Seki
    •  & Masayuki Yamamoto

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The water channel AQP2 mediates the concentration of urine in the kidney. Here Ando et al. show that Wnt5 promotes collecting duct permeability by regulating AQP2 expression and localization through activation of the calmodulin/calcineurin signalling pathway.

    • Fumiaki Ando
    • , Eisei Sohara
    •  & Shinichi Uchida

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Diabetic kidney disease is associated with ER stress in podocytes. Here the authors use various genetically modified mouse models to study ER-stress-related signalling pathways and propose a mechanistic framework that links insulin signalling with ER stress in podocytes of diabetic mice.

    • Thati Madhusudhan
    • , Hongjie Wang
    •  & Berend Isermann

  • Article |

    Loss-of-function mutations in PKD1, the gene encoding the plasma membrane receptor Polycystin-1, lead to renal cyst formation in polycystic kidney disease. Here, Castelli et al. show that Polycystin-1 interacts with the Par3 polarity complex and has a role in the morphogenesis of kidney tubules during mouse development.

    • Maddalena Castelli
    • , Manila Boca
    •  & Alessandra Boletta

Browse broader subjects

Browse narrower subjects

Browse Nephrons across other nature.com journals