Comparing functional responses in podocyte-like cells of four different origins

What is it about?

There are suprisingly few physiologically relevant model systems for drug discovery programs and/or investigations of mechanisms of human disease. This work investigates how podocytes derived from different sources (two derived from Alport Syndrome patients, one from a renal disease free individual and one immortalized cell line) respond to two activators of G-protein coupled receptors, calcium and angiotensin II. While all four cell lines are fundamentally different, the most consistent feature is what appears to be the opening of calcium-dependent potassium channels in the immortalized and renal-disease free podocyte-like cells, but not in the Alport Syndrome patient derived cells.

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Why is it important?

This work shows the feasibility of using human pluripotent stem cells to create model systems relevant to human disease. With a little tweaking this system could easily be employed for high throughput drug screening for podocyte (or other renal cell) protective compounds.