Dendrin ablation prolongs life span by delaying kidney failure.

Podocyte loss is central to the progression of proteinuric kidney diseases leading to end-stage kidney disease (ESKD), requiring renal replacement therapy, such as dialysis. Despite modern tools and techniques, the 5-year mortality of some patients requiring dialysis remains at about 70% to 80%. Thus, there is a great unmet need for podocyte-specific treatments aimed at preventing podocyte loss and the ensuing development of ESKD.

Lack of health insurance in living kidney donors.

Living donors are recommended to receive lifelong routine health maintenance after donation. There has been little examination of health insurance status among living donors, despite the fact that lack of health insurance is likely to impede donors' ability to obtain long-term healthcare post-donation. We performed a retrospective chart review for all living kidney donors at our institution between 2004 and 2008 to determine insurance status, demographic, socioeconomic, and basic health characteristics.