The difficulty in accessing mammalian nephrons in vivo hinders the study of podocyte
biology. The Drosophila nephrocyte shares remarkable similarities to the glomerular …

Renal diseases are a growing health burden, and innovative models to study their
pathomechanisms are greatly needed. Here, we highlight how the fruit fly Drosophila …

Glomerular disorders are a major cause of end-stage renal disease and effective therapies
are often lacking. Nephrocytes are considered to be part of the Drosophila excretory system …

Podocytes do not remain fully differentiated when cultured, and they are difficult to image in
vivo, making the study of podocyte biology challenging. Zebrafish embryos are transparent …

The slit diaphragm (SD) is a highly specialized intercellular junction between podocyte foot
processes and is crucial in the formation of the filtration barrier in the renal glomeruli …

Biological and biomedical research using Drosophila melanogaster as a model organism
has gained recognition through several Nobel prizes within the last 100 years. Drosophila …

Podocytes are specialized epithelial cells covering the basement membrane of the
glomerulus in the kidney. The molecular mechanisms underlying the role of podocytes in …

Podocin is a key protein of the kidney podocyte slit diaphragm protein complex, an important
part of the glomerular filtration barrier. Mutations in the human podocin gene NPHS2 cause …

Elucidating the gene regulatory networks that control kidney development can provide
information about the origins of renal birth defects and kidney disease, as well as insights …

Transgenic manipulation of the glomerular visceral epithelial cell offers a powerful approach
for studying the biology of this morphologically complex cell type. It has been previously …