Neonatal rabbit kidney cortex in culture as tool for the study of collecting duct formation and nephron differentiation

By stripping off the capsula fibrosa of neonatal rabbit kidneys a consistently thin tissue layer consisting of collecting duct anlagen, S-shaped bodies and nephrogenic blastema is obtained. This thin layer seems to be an excellent object for investigation of epithelium formation and nephron differentiation. Three different tissue culture protocols are described: 1. A polarly differentiated collecting duct epithelium with 'tight' characteristics consisting only of principal cells, grown on specific renal support 2. A morphologically dedifferentiated collecting duct principal cell monolayer grown on the unspecific bottom of a plastic culture dish 3. An embryonic tissue layer with numerous S-shaped bodies which might be a suitable model for investigation of the development of maturing nephron structures in serum-free culture medium.