Nephrol Dial Transplant (2003) 18: 641-644
© 2003 European Renal Association-European Dialysis and Transplant Association
Editorial Comments
Stem cells of the adult kidney: where are you from?
Department of Internal Medicine and Therapeutics, Division of Nephrology, Osaka University School of Medicine, Suita, Japan
Keywords: bone marrow; kidney; side population; SP cell; stem cell
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Introduction
The structure of the kidney is the result of a sophisticated interaction between several types of immature cells. Research over the past few decades has elucidated many of the processes underlying cell proliferation, cell fate determination and differentiation. The discovery of genes related to nephrogenesis has been of great help in understanding the sequence of events in nephrogenesis. This information is available at http://golgi.ana.ed.ac.uk/kidhome.html [1]. Attempts to identify further relevant genes are ongoing [24].
It has been a continuing challenge to identify the stem cells involved in the genesis of this complicated organ and to understand how they are regulated. The difficulty begins with the definition of what is a stem cell. Most definitions include as sine qua non requisites the capacity of self-renewal and the potential to generate several different types of differentiated progeny [5]. The criterion of self-renewal implies that
Regulation of stem cells
Bone marrow as a reservoir
Side population (SP) cells
Perspective