The renal papilla is a niche for adult kidney stem cells

• DOI: 10.1172/jci20921
• Publication Date: 2008-02-14T20:20:07Z
• Authors: Juan A. Oliver; Omar Maarouf; Faisal H. Cheema; Timothy P. Martens; Qais Al-Awqati
• Keywords: Renal papilla; Renal stem cell

Many adult organs contain stem cells, which are pluripotent and involved in organ maintenance repair after injury. In situ, these cells often have a low cycling rate locate specialized regions (niches). To detect such the kidney, we administered pulse of nucleotide bromodeoxyuridine (BrdU) to rat mouse pups and, long (more than 2-month) chase, examined whether kidney contained population low-cycling cells. We found that BrdU-retaining were very sparse except renal papilla, where they numerous. During phase transient ischemia, entered cell cycle BrdU signal quickly disappeared from despite absence apoptosis this part kidney. vitro isolation papillary showed them plastic phenotype could be modulated by oxygen tension when injected into cortex, incorporated parenchyma. addition, like other spontaneously formed spheres. Single-cell clones coexpressed mesenchymal epithelial proteins gave rise myofibroblasts, expressing neuronal markers, uncharacterized phenotype. These data indicate papilla is niche for