Kidney development, injury and regeneration-Zebrafish

Acute kidney injury (AKI), acute kidney disease (AKD), and chronic kidney disease (CKD) affect millions worldwide, presenting an escalating health care and economic burden, while current treatments primarily focus on slowing further kidney function loss. Treatment failure can lead to end-stage kidney disease (ESKD), which necessitates kidney replacement therapies, including dialysis-which significantly reduces quality of life-or kidney transplantation. However, limited organ availability extends waiting times to up to 10-15 years in some European countries, such as the United Kingdom and Germany. The urgent need for regenerative therapies that promote kidney recovery and potentially enable the development of de novo human kidneys places the zebrafish as a powerful model organism for these studies. Zebrafish can regenerate kidney function after AKI by forming new nephrons that integrate into the existing tubular network. Using zebrafish to investigate kidney development and injury-induced regeneration allows for the discovery of key pathways involved in renal repair and development. Importantly, adult zebrafish possess a niche of kidney progenitor cells that facilitate regeneration after injury. This chapter provides an overview of kidney development and regeneration mechanisms, highlights current experimental approaches for modeling kidney injury, and explores potential translational implications for human kidney regenerative therapies.