11 research outputs found
Decrease of erythrocyte and glomerular membrane negative charges in chronic cadmium poisoning.
Release of cAMP Gating by the α6β4 Integrin Stimulates Lamellae Formation and the Chemotactic Migration of Invasive Carcinoma Cells
Isolation and propagation of glomerular mesangial cells.
Cultures of glomerular mesangial cells (MC) of rodent or human origin have been extensively employed in renal research laboratories since the early 1980s. Cultured MC retain extensive analogies with the fairly undifferentiated in vivo phenotype of an intercapillary mesenchymal cell population, i.e., a myofibroblast. MC proliferating in response to mitogens and growth factors can be growth-arrested by withdrawal of serum or 3D culture in collagen gels. They synthesize an extracellular matrix that includes interstitial collagens and has analogies with the glomerular basement membrane; a prominent cytoskeleton acts as a functional contractile apparatus. Cultured MC have been extensively employed as a tool for studying pathophysiological events such as mesangial expansion, scarring, and glomerulosclerosis. Current technology for MC isolation and culture is reviewed, with emphasis on methodological issues relevant to characterization, propagation, and long-term maintenance of homogeneous clones