In videos created by the Hughes Lab to visualize the process, adjacent nephrons form one after the other, as if they were following a beat. “It’s still a hypothesis,” adds Hughes, “but we think that ...

The kidney carries out important functions via microscopic functional units called nephrons. Researchers are investigating which factors control the formation and function of specific segments of the ...

This image shows a reconstitution of nephron structures by propagated nephron progenitors derived from human iPS cells. Yellow arrowheads: glomeruli, Black arrowheads: renal tubules. Scale bar: 20 µm.

The more tightly packed the tubules, which increases over time, the stiffer the tissue. As tubule branching continues, they found that each additional branch caused a pulse of mechanical stress, which ...

Glomeruli are at the heart of renal function, and yet are only part of an intact nephron. They are of irreplaceable value in maintaining homeostasis. The intact nephron theory: Each nephron is a ...