Organ In Vitro Culture: What Have We Learned about Early Kidney Development?

Table 2

Genes important for nephrogenesis.

Gene abbreviation	Gene full name	Expression	Role in kidney development	References
BMP2	Bone morphogenetic protein 2	Pretubular aggregate, distal part of early tubules	Inhibiting ureteric bud growth and branching	Godin et al. 1999 [118]
BMP4	Bone morphogenetic Protein 4	Mesenchymal cells surrounding Wolffian duct and stromal mesenchyme surrounding ureteric bud stalks	Preventing ectopic ureteric bud outgrowth and extra ureteric bud divisions	Miyazaki et al. 2000 [65]
BMP7	Bone morphogenetic Protein 7	MM	Survival of MM	Dudley et al. 1999 [14]
Calb	Calbindin	Ureteric bud epithelial cells and distal part of the nephron	Regulating calcium reabsorption	Davies 1994 [119]
Cdh6	Cadherin 6	Proximal tubule	Cell polarization, MET, lumen formation	Cheng et al. 2007 [77]
CITED1	Cbp/p300-interactin transactivator 1	Subpopulation of cells in cap MM	Maintenance of undifferentiated cells within the cap MM	Mugford et al. 2009 [81]
E-cadh	E-cadherin	Ureteric bud epithelial and distal tubule cells	Cell polarization, MET, lumen formation	Jia et al. 2011 [119]
Emx2	Empty spiracles protein 2	Ureteric bud epithelial cells	Regulating ureteric bud functions upon Pax2 induction in the MM	Miyamoto et al. 1997 [51]
FGF2	Fibroblast growth factor 2	MM	Survival of MM	Dudley et al. 1999 [14]
FoxD1	Forkhead Box D1	Stromal MM	Differentiation of nephron progenitors	Das et al. 2013 [17], Fetting et al. 2014 [18]
GDNF	Glial-cell derived neurotrophic factor	MM	Inducing ureteric bud outgrowth from Wolffian duct, interacting with Ret	Hellmich et al. 1996 [53], Sainio et al. 1997 [54]
Osr1	Odd-skipped related transcription factor 1	Intermediate mesoderm, MM	Giving rise to MM	Mugford et al. 2008 [45]
Pax2	Paired box gene 2	Ureteric bud epithelial cells and condensed MM	Expression in the MM ensures high level of GDNF production	Dressler et al. 1990 [46], Rothenpieler and Dressler 1993 [47], Brophy et al. 2001 [48]
Ret	Receptor tyrosine-protein kinase	Ureteric bud epithelial cells	Initial ureteric bud outgrowth from Wolffian duct, interacts with GDNF	Shakya et al. 2005 [55]
Sall1	Spalt-like transcription factor 1	MM	Ensuring high level of GDNF production	Nishinakamura et al. 2001 [52]
Six2	Sine oculis-related homeobox 2	Subpopulation of cells in cap MM	Maintaining nephron progenitor cells	Kobayashi et al. 2008 [15], Mugford et al. 2008 [45]
Wnt4	Wingless-type MMTV integration site family, member 4	Cap MM, pretubular aggregate, nephron progenitors	Mesenchymal-to-epithelial transition (MET)	Park et al. 2007 [75]; Shan et al. 2010 [76]
Wnt9b	Wingless-type MMTV integration site family, member 9B	Ureteric bud stalk epithelial cells	Renewal and differentiation of nephron progenitors and normal ureteric bud branching, MET	Carroll et al. 2005 [73], Park et al. 2007 [75], Karner et al. 2009 [74]
Wt1	Wilms tumor 1	Cap MM, high levels; stromal MM, low levels; glomerular progenitors	Ensuring high level of GDNF production	Kreidberg et al. 1993 [50]