Therefore, higher absolute IDWG needs to be strictly controlled despite the corresponding IDWG% possibly being relatively small in heavy haemodialysis patients. “
“Podocytes (glomerular epithelial cells) lie on the urinary aspect of the glomerular capillary and play a key role in the selective filter that underlies click here kidney function. They are injured in various forms of renal disease: the extents of this injury and its reversibility have major implications for treatment and prognosis. Until recently, podocytes were difficult

to study in vitro because of a previous lack of techniques for obtaining differentiated cells in quantities adequate for research. In recent years, this problem has been solved for rodent and human podocytes and there has been an explosion of research using cultured cells. These authors have led the development and characterization of human podocyte cell lines and in this article describe the INK-128 methods that have allowed them to do this. In recent years, one of the fastest moving areas of research progress in nephrology has been the appreciation of the importance

of the visceral glomerular epithelial cell, hereinafter referred to as the podocyte, in health and disease. Podocytes play a key role in the prevention of proteinuria in the healthy situation, are important targets of injury in a variety of renal diseases and are important determinants of outcome.1,2 Improved understanding of podocyte biology has however come from two main arenas: first, molecular genetics of single gene disorders which lead to rare forms of congenital nephrotic syndrome; and second, focused study of this specialized cell type in vivo and in vitro. The purpose of this article is to review the current state of knowledge in relation to the in vitro study of podocytes. The authors have most experience of human podocyte culture, but where relevant we will also discuss study of podocytes from

other species. Our aim is to help new investigators to join this exciting field. When cells are directly separated from tissue and propagated in vitro they are referred to as ‘primary culture cells’. For podocytes, this typically requires isolation of glomeruli by differential sieving, plating of glomeruli onto a collagen surface (use of collagen surface is optional, currently we use tissue culture treated surface instead) and outgrowth of cobblestone-like cells (further details will be given later). Some of the early work on rat3 and human4 podocytes used primary culture podocytes, but the problem was that these cells did not develop the features of differentiated cells and they continued to proliferate, whereas differentiated podocytes are quiescent cells that do not proliferate. When specific markers of differentiated podocytes (such as nephrin and podocin) became known in the early 1990s, it was clear that podocytes suitable for in vitro study needed to demonstrate expression of these markers.