Collective cell migration drives morphogenesis of the kidney nephron.

ABSTRACT: Tissue organization in epithelial organs is achieved during development by the combined processes of cell differentiation and morphogenetic cell movements. In the kidney, the nephron is the functional organ unit. Each nephron is an epithelial tubule that is subdivided into discrete segments with specific transport functions. Little is known about how nephron segments are defined or how segments acquire their distinctive morphology and cell shape. Using live, in vivo cell imaging of the forming zebrafish pronephric nephron, we found that the migration of fully differentiated epithelial cells accounts for both the final position of nephron segment boundaries and the characteristic convolution of the proximal tubule. Pronephric cells maintain adherens junctions and polarized apical brush bord

SUBMITTER: Vasilyev A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2613420 | biostudies-literature | 2009 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature