Human kidney progenitors isolated, offering new clues to cell renewal
After reading through many articles, this one in particular grabbed my attention because one of my good friend's father has suffered with kidney failure most of his life receiving two kidney transplants and being on dialysis most of his adult life. In this article it discusses how researchers at The Saban Research institute of Children’s Hospital in LA have been able to isolate certain cells called Nephron Progenitor cells, or NP cells for short. These cells eventually become renal cells in the kidney, which from my understanding are cells that play a major role in filtering in the kidney. Being able to understand how progenitor cells become renal cells in a developing fetus could potentially help medical professionals provide a way to encourage renal regeneration after kidney diseases or injury.
Like neurons, nephrons can not be regenerated in the human body. The article clearly explains that a nephron is a tiny structure in the kidney that filters waste and that about five hundred thousand to one million of these nephrons are created before week 34-36 of fetal gestation. If for some reason a loss of these nephrons occurs or not enough are generated, cell repair or regeneration can not occur therefore affecting the functionality of the kidney and could lead to kidney failure.
In order to isolate the human NP cells, Scientists used RNA labeling probes to find the NP expressing SIX2 and CITED1 which are transcriptional regulators that can specify self renewing nephron progenitor cells of the embryonic kidney. Identifying theses genes could help regulation of renal development.
Laura Perin, PhD, co-director of CHLA's GOFARR Laboratory for Organ Regenerative Research and Cell Therapeutics in Urology states "In addition to defining the genetic profile of human NP, this system will facilitate studies of human kidney development, providing a novel tool for renal regeneration and bioengineering purposes.”..."This technique provides a 'how to' of human tissue during development,"
This is fascinating and if this could be perfected could ultimately change the way we distinguish medicine. Being able to harness the regenerative property of these cells in embryos could open up a door to all other types of research to use this technique to regenerate other organ cells changing current medical practices.
http://www.biologynews.net/archives/2016/09/12/human_kidney_progenitors_isolated_offering_new_clues_to_cell_renewal.html
So does that mean that these nephrons can only be harvested in a fetus or does the article specify this? If that being the case, does that affect your opinion or do you believe it is for the 'greater good' in saving those who are already alive? I ask purely out of curiosity and not to belittle or slander your views or beliefs.
ReplyDelete-J.A.
From what I understood are they just observing how they kidneys develop in a fetus to grasp a better understanding on how they can prevent kidney failure in adults?
ReplyDeleteRuth Guerra
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ReplyDelete@JA Researchers have found the regulators that make the nephrons in a fetus. Identifying this regulator, they could potentially in the future understand how to use this to more or less turn it back on to create nephrons. With this development, they could also use this research to find those regulators that inhibit the reproduction of other cells like neurons that do not undergo mitosis postpartum.
ReplyDeleteRW
body part regeneration is probably the future of organ problems. to regenerate new organs and have it solve some lifelong problem would be great! just like the movies you can fix or regrow an entire new organ. i think that this is a good path for science to take.
ReplyDeleteMC
The ability to harness the regenerative properties of stem cells and implant those in cells to treat renal failure seems like an amazing technique to treat diseases such as kidney failure and dementia, caused by destruction of cells that cannot regenerate and don't respond to current treatments. SRH
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