A novel assay to assess the effect of pharmaceutical compounds on the differentiation of podocytes.

ABSTRACT:

Background and purpose

Therapeutic options for treating glomerulopathies, the main cause of chronic kidney disease, are limited. Podocyte dedifferentiation is a major event in the pathogenesis of glomerulopathies. The goal of the present study was, therefore, to develop an assay to monitor podocyte differentiation suitable for compound screening.

Experimental approach

We isolated and cultured glomeruli from transgenic mice, expressing cyan fluorescent protein (CFP) under the control of the promoter of nephrin, a marker of podocyte differentiation. Mean CFP fluorescence intensity per glomerulus (MFG) was determined by summation of all glomerular voxels from confocal z-stacks in the absence and presence of pharmaceutical compounds.

Key results

In untreated cultured glom

SUBMITTER: Kindt F 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5192948 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature