Failing to Filter

As your cells work, they create waste. Where does it all go? Into your blood and eventually to your kidneys, where it’s filtered out for excretion. But with kidney failure, dangerous levels of waste build up. The most common inherited disease causing kidney failure is autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease (ADPKD). Analysing tiny blood vessels (microvasculature) in affected kidney samples from patients, researchers found a population with abnormal metabolism and impaired signals for new vessel growth. A similar population was found in a mouse model of ADPKD – which carries a mutation in the Pkd1 gene seen in the human disease and, crucially, can be studied in the early stages of disease development – and these kidneys also had reduced blood flow. Imaging developing mouse ADPKD kidneys revealed disorganised blood vessels (pictured right) compared to healthy developing kidneys (left). With human and mouse ADPKD kidneys telling a similar story, these particular blood vessels may prove to be promising targets for ADPKD treatments.

Written by Lux Fatimathas

Lux Fatimathas

Writer

Having pursued science through a career in research, communications and publishing, she is currently a writer and editor for a healthcare marketing agency and also juggles freelance science writing.

• Image from work by Daniyal J. Jafree and colleagues
• Developmental Biology and Cancer Research and Teaching Department, UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health, University College London, London, UK
• Image originally published with a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
• Published in Disease Models & Mechanisms, April 2025