Principles of Zebrafish Nephron Segment Development

Abstract

Nephrons are the functional units which comprise the kidney. Each nephron contains a number of physiologically unique populations of specialized epithelial cells that are organized into discrete domains known as segments. The principles of nephron segment development have been the subject of many studies in recent years. Understanding the mechanisms of nephrogenesis has enormous potential to expand our knowledge about the basis of congenital anomalies of the kidney and urinary tract (CAKUT), and to contribute to ongoing regenerative medicine efforts aimed at identifying renal repair mechanisms and generating replacement kidney tissue. The study of the zebrafish embryonic kidney, or pronephros, provides many opportunities to identify the genes and signaling pathways that control nephron segment development. Here, we describe recent advances of nephron segment patterning and differentiation in the zebrafish, with a focus on distal segment formation.

Emx2 is an essential regulator of ciliated cell development across embryonic tissues

“…Interestingly, we found emx2 expression in several locations that contain ciliated cells, including the pronephros, otic vesicle, and nasal placode (Figure 1A). In the zebrafish kidney, there are two types of ciliated epithelia within the nephron functional units: monociliated cells and MCCs (Liu et al, 2007; Ma and Jiang, 2007; Nguyen et al, 2023). The populations of monociliated tubule cells in the zebrafish kidney are patterned into discrete functional segments known as the proximal convoluted tubule (PCT), proximal straight tubule (PST), distal early (DE) and distal late (DL) at the 28 ss (Supplemental Figure 1A) (Wingert et al, 2007).…”

Estrogen signaling in development: recent insights from the zebrafish

“…The zebrafish, as a high throughput and conserved model, is particularly useful in interrogating genes of interest from these large datasets (Naylor et al, 2017). Through various chemical and genetic screens, researchers have garnered new insights to the regulatory networks controlling nephrogenesis (Chambers et al, 2023;Nguyen et al, 2023).…”

Zebrafish as a Model to Study Retinoic Acid Signaling in Development and Disease

“…The nephron is the functional unit in the kidney, and it is tasked with several critical physiological roles: the filtering of the blood through the glomerulus, the facilitation of solutes in and out of circulation via the tubules, and the passage of waste for dismissal in the collecting duct [ 172 ]. In higher vertebrates, the pronephros is the first transient form of the kidney, followed by the mesonephros, and the final formation of the kidney is named the metanephros [ 172 ]. In zebrafish, only the first two, the pronephros and mesonephros, are formed [ 173 ].…”