New Insights into Podocyte Biology in Glomerular Health and Disease

Abstract

Podocyte and glomerular research is center stage for the development of improved preventive and therapeutic strategies for chronic progressive kidney diseases. Held April 3-6, 2016, the 11th International Podocyte Conference took place in Haifa and Jerusalem, Israel, where participants from all over the world presented their work on new developments in podocyte research. In this review, we briefly highlight the advances made in characterizing the mechanisms involved in podocyte development, metabolism, acquired injury, and repair, including progress in determining the roles of genetic variants and microRNA in particular, as well as the advances made in diagnostic techniques and therapeutics.

Keywords: glomerular basement membrane; glomerular disease; podocyte; slit diaphragm.

Figure 1.

The 11th International Podocyte Conference in Israel: giving new insights into how podocytes regulate glomerular function in a complex interplay with neighboring glomerular cells.

Figure 2.

Conference at a glance: Topics and methods presented at the 11th International Podocyte Conference to evaluate podocyte number and function, glomerular disease, and use for diagnosis and therapy. Cryo-EM, cryoelectron microscopy; ER, endoplasmic reticulum; GEC, glomerular endothelial cell; iPC, induced pluripotent stem cell; MC, mesangial cell; PEC, parietal epithelial cell; SDF-1, stromal cell–derived factor 1; SEM, scanning electron microscopy; SIM-TIRF, structured illumination microscopy-total internal reflection fluorescence; THSD7A, thrombospondin type 1 domain containing 7A; uEGF, urinary epidermal growth factor; WES, whole-exome sequencing.