| First Author | Deacon P | Year | 2019 |
| Journal | Sci Rep | Volume | 9 |
| Issue | 1 | Pages | 15915 |
| PubMed ID | 31685872 | Mgi Jnum | J:287010 |
| Mgi Id | MGI:6405597 | Doi | 10.1038/s41598-019-52255-w |
| Citation | Deacon P, et al. (2019) beta-catenin regulates the formation of multiple nephron segments in the mouse kidney. Sci Rep 9(1):15915 |
| abstractText | The nephron is composed of distinct segments that perform unique physiological functions. Little is known about how multipotent nephron progenitor cells differentiate into different nephron segments. It is well known that beta-catenin signaling regulates the maintenance and commitment of mesenchymal nephron progenitors during kidney development. However, it is not fully understood how it regulates nephron segmentation after nephron progenitors undergo mesenchymal-to-epithelial transition. To address this, we performed beta-catenin loss-of-function and gain-of-function studies in epithelial nephron progenitors in the mouse kidney. Consistent with a previous report, the formation of the renal corpuscle was defective in the absence of beta-catenin. Interestingly, we found that epithelial nephron progenitors lacking beta-catenin were able to form presumptive proximal tubules but that they failed to further develop into differentiated proximal tubules, suggesting that beta-catenin signaling plays a critical role in proximal tubule development. We also found that epithelial nephron progenitors lacking beta-catenin failed to form the distal tubules. Expression of a stable form of beta-catenin in epithelial nephron progenitors blocked the proper formation of all nephron segments, suggesting tight regulation of beta-catenin signaling during nephron segmentation. This work shows that beta-catenin regulates the formation of multiple nephron segments along the proximo-distal axis of the mammalian nephron. |
