A Finnish nationwide register-based study shows a further 50% decline in already low child mortality.

Aim: Child mortality declined significantly in Finland in 1969-2004. We investigated whether the already low mortality rate could still decline from 2005 to 2020.

Methods: This was a nationwide register-based study.

Clinical Outcomes of Acutely Ill Children According to Cycle Threshold Values of Respiratory Viruses Detected by Multiplex PCR Testing.

In this cohort study of 800 children attending a pediatric emergency department at Oulu University Hospital, Finland with fever or respiratory symptoms, the cycle threshold values of point-of-care multiplex polymerase chain reaction testing for respiratory viruses were not associated with hospitalization, respiratory support, or need for intensive care.

Severe hospital-acquired hyponatremia in acutely ill children receiving moderately hypotonic fluids.

Background: Hypotonic fluids have been associated with hospital-acquired hyponatremia. The incidence of life-threatening severe hyponatremia associated with hypotonic fluids has not been evaluated.

Methods: This was a population-based cohort study of 46,518 acutely ill children 15 years of age or under who visited the pediatric emergency department (ED) at Oulu University Hospital, Finland, between 2007 and 2017.

CD146(+) cells are essential for kidney vasculature development.

The kidney vasculature is critical for renal function, but its developmental assembly mechanisms remain poorly understood and models for studying its assembly dynamics are limited. Here, we tested whether the embryonic kidney contains endothelial cells (ECs) that are heterogeneous with respect to VEGFR2/Flk1/KDR, CD31/PECAM, and CD146/MCAM markers. Tie1Cre;R26R(YFP)-based fate mapping with a time-lapse in embryonic kidney organ culture successfully depicted the dynamics of kidney vasculature development and the correlation of the process with the CD31(+) EC network.

Functional genetic targeting of embryonic kidney progenitor cells ex vivo.

The embryonic mammalian metanephric mesenchyme (MM) is a unique tissue because it is competent to generate the nephrons in response to Wnt signaling. An ex vivo culture in which the MM is separated from the ureteric bud (UB), the natural inducer, can be used as a classic tubule induction model for studying nephrogenesis. However, technological restrictions currently prevent using this model to study the molecular genetic details before or during tubule induction.

Renal blood flow and oxygenation drive nephron progenitor differentiation.

During kidney development, the vasculature develops via both angiogenesis (branching from major vessels) and vasculogenesis (de novo vessel formation). The formation and perfusion of renal blood vessels are vastly understudied. In the present study, we investigated the regulatory role of renal blood flow and O2 concentration on nephron progenitor differentiation during ontogeny.

Coordination of kidney organogenesis by Wnt signaling.

Several Wnt proteins are expressed in the embryonic kidney during various stages of development. Gene knockout models and ex vivo studies have provided strong evidence that Wnt-mediated signals are essential in renal ontogeny. Perhaps the most critical factors, Wnt9b and Wnt4, function during the early phase when the cap mesenchyme is induced to undergo morphogenesis into a nephron.

In vitro induction of nephrogenesis in mouse metanephric mesenchyme with lithium introduction and ureteric bud recombination.

The organ culture setup of embryonic kidney has served as a model of nephrogenesis for several decades. In vitro culture of the mouse metanephric mesenchyme enables easy manipulation and analysis of the tissue and provides information of cellular interactions, morphogenesis, cell differentiation, and molecular biology of the developmental process. The advantages of the tissue culture method include enhanced representativeness of situation in living organism compared to cell culture assays and less demanding and time-consuming possibilities to experimental work compared with in vivo research.