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Establishing A Mouse Model For The Study Of Podocyte Regeneration After Injury, John A. Gomez

Honors Theses

Podocytes are vital, specialized kidney cells that are post-mitotic and cannot proliferate. Nevertheless, regeneration of podocytes after low-level ablation from a presently unidentified stem cell pool has been observed. The objective of this study was to establish a mouse model for the study of this regeneration process. Two transgenic mice were developed, the first of which possessed a tomato-reporter transgene for the assessment of podocyte turnover. Adriamycin was used to induce podocyte damage in this mouse. The second transgenic mouse possessed the tomato-reporter transgene as well as transgene allowing for the diphtheria toxin inducible (iDTR) ablation of podocytes. Dosage tests …