Tissue culture in nephrology: potential and limits for the study of renal disease

Kidney cells, when isolated and cultivated in vitro, retain differentiated renal properties. Glomerular epithelial and mesangial cells from animal and human kidneys express their normal ultrastructure and the ability for basement membrane biosynthesis. Mesangial cells in culture have been utilized particularly for the study of hormonal tissue receptors, of prostaglandin production, and of their contractile response to various hormonal stimuli. Cells of tubule origin have been a valuable tool for the study of transport mechanism which, as a consequence of the heterogeneity of nephron functions, can not be assessed in vivo. Ion transport and its structural basis, as well as transport regulation by hormones has been studied in established epithelial cell lines. Induction of ion transport and enzyme activities, and the control of cell proliferation and differentiation has also been succesfully evaluated in cultured epithelia derived from the kidney. Future work will attempt to prepare cell lines from defined nephron segments to study chemical and physical phenomena of renal disease.