How the developing mammalian kidney assembles its thousands of nephrons: Fgfs as stemness signals

Seppo Vainio

doi:10.1016/j.devcel.2012.05.016

How the developing mammalian kidney assembles its thousands of nephrons: Fgfs as stemness signals

Dev Cell. 2012 Jun 12;22(6):1125-6. doi: 10.1016/j.devcel.2012.05.016.

Author

Seppo Vainio¹

Affiliation

¹ Biocenter Oulu, Laboratory of Developmental Biology and Department of Medical Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Institute of Biomedicine, Oulu Center for Cell Matrix Research, University of Oulu, P.O. Box 5000, Oulu FIN-90014, Finland. seppo.vainio@oulu.fi

PMID: 22698278
DOI: 10.1016/j.devcel.2012.05.016

Abstract

In this issue of Developmental Cell, Barak et al. (2012) identify a critical role for Fgf9 and Fgf20 signaling in the nephron progenitors of the developing mammalian kidney. These Fgfs serve as survival and nephron-forming competence signals for purified Six2+ cells that represent the progenitors that normally go on to generate nephrons.

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