In:
eLife, eLife Sciences Publications, Ltd, Vol. 8 ( 2019-02-13)
Abstract:
The kidneys clean our blood by filtering out waste products while ensuring that useful components, like nutrients, remain in the bloodstream. Blood enters the kidneys through a network of intricately arranged blood vessels, which associate closely with the ‘cleaning tubes’ that carry out filtration. Human kidneys start developing during the early phases of embryonic development. During this process, the newly forming blood vessels and cleaning tubes must grow in the right places for the adult kidney to work properly. Macrophages are cells of the immune system that clear away foreign, diseased, or damaged cells. They are also thought to encourage growth of the developing kidney, but how exactly they do this has remained unknown. Munro et al. therefore wanted to find out when macrophages first appeared in the embryonic kidney and how they might help control their development. Experiments using mice revealed that the first macrophages arrived in the kidney early during its development, alongside newly forming blood vessels. Further investigation using genetically modified mice that did not have macrophages revealed that these immune cells were needed at this stage to clear away misplaced kidney cells and help ‘set the scene’ for future development. At later stages, macrophages in the kidney interacted closely with growing blood vessels. As well as producing molecules linked with blood vessel formation, the macrophages wrapped around the vessels themselves, sometimes even eating cells lining the vessels and the blood cells carried within them. These observations suggested that macrophages actively shaped the network of blood vessels developing within the kidneys. Experiments removing macrophages from kidney tissue confirmed this: in normal kidneys, the blood vessels grew into a continuous network, but in kidneys lacking macrophages, far fewer connections formed between the vessels. This work sheds new light on how the complex structures in the adult kidney first arise and could be useful in future research. For example, adding macrophages to simplified, laboratory-grown ‘mini-kidneys’ could make them better models to study kidney growth, while patients suffering from kidney diseases might benefit from new drugs targeting macrophages.
Type of Medium:
Online Resource
ISSN:
2050-084X
DOI:
10.7554/eLife.43271.001
DOI:
10.7554/eLife.43271.002
DOI:
10.7554/eLife.43271.003
DOI:
10.7554/eLife.43271.004
DOI:
10.7554/eLife.43271.005
DOI:
10.7554/eLife.43271.006
DOI:
10.7554/eLife.43271.007
DOI:
10.7554/eLife.43271.008
DOI:
10.7554/eLife.43271.009
DOI:
10.7554/eLife.43271.010
DOI:
10.7554/eLife.43271.011
DOI:
10.7554/eLife.43271.012
DOI:
10.7554/eLife.43271.013
DOI:
10.7554/eLife.43271.014
DOI:
10.7554/eLife.43271.015
DOI:
10.7554/eLife.43271.016
DOI:
10.7554/eLife.43271.017
DOI:
10.7554/eLife.43271.018
DOI:
10.7554/eLife.43271.019
DOI:
10.7554/eLife.43271.020
DOI:
10.7554/eLife.43271.021
DOI:
10.7554/eLife.43271.022
DOI:
10.7554/eLife.43271.023
DOI:
10.7554/eLife.43271.024
DOI:
10.7554/eLife.43271.025
DOI:
10.7554/eLife.43271.026
DOI:
10.7554/eLife.43271.027
DOI:
10.7554/eLife.43271.028
DOI:
10.7554/eLife.43271.029
DOI:
10.7554/eLife.43271.030
DOI:
10.7554/eLife.43271.031
DOI:
10.7554/eLife.43271.032
DOI:
10.7554/eLife.43271.033
DOI:
10.7554/eLife.43271.034
DOI:
10.7554/eLife.43271.035
DOI:
10.7554/eLife.43271.036
DOI:
10.7554/eLife.43271.037
DOI:
10.7554/eLife.43271.041
DOI:
10.7554/eLife.43271.042
Language:
English
Publisher:
eLife Sciences Publications, Ltd
Publication Date:
2019
detail.hit.zdb_id:
2687154-3
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