Review Article

A Compendium of Urinary Biomarkers Indicative of Glomerular Podocytopathy

Figure 3

Podocytes envelop the capillary tuft of the glomerular body and are an integral part of the glomerular filtration apparatus. If podocytes are injured or lost via any number of mechanisms, podocyte specific material or whole podocytes themselves may traverse the length of the nephron and urinary tract to be collected/observed in the excreted urine product. With such material in hand, a number of noted techniques can be used to identify the podocyte derivations. More poignantly, investigations to date have described that such techniques can identify podocyte specific proteins, mRNA, an exosomal transcription factor, and podocalyxin positive granular structures.
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