Endocrine Abstracts

Renin is a rate-limiting enzymatic component of the renin-angiotensin pathway controlling blood pressure in vertebrates. Using the zebrafish developmental model organism, we study how renin-secreting cells are established in a small region of the early embryo that gives rise to the developing pronephric kidney: the origin of these cells, the factors that induce the differentiation of this cell lineage, and the function of very early renin expression. This study aims to gain insight into the proposed role of renin in kidney organogenesis observed in mice and humans, and the early development of renin-angiotensin function. Functional assays recording the onset of glomerular filtration are combined with gene expression analysis and gene knockdown to focus on how this cell lineage is specified by developmental signals and epigenetic marks programming the cell nucleus.