Spatiotemporal distribution of insulin-like growth factor receptors during nephrogenesis in fetuses from normal and diabetic rats.

Exposure to hyperglycemia in utero impairs rat nephrogenesis. The effect of maternal diabetes on insulin-like growth factors and their receptors in the fetal kidney is associated with an increase in both mRNA and protein of the insulin-like growth factor II/mannose 6-phosphate receptor. However, this receptor has never been localized in the fetal kidney.

Midkine is involved in kidney development and in its regulation by retinoids.

In the kidney, in which development depends on epithelial-mesenchymal interactions, it has been shown that retinoids modulate nephrogenesis in a dose-dependent manner in vivo and in vitro. Midkine (MK) is a retinoic acid responsive gene for a heparin-binding growth factor. The aim of the present study was therefore to quantify the expression of MK mRNA during renal development in the rat, to analyze the regulation of MK expression by retinoids in vivo and in vitro, and, finally, to study the role of MK in rat metanephric organ cultures.

Altered nephrogenesis due to maternal diabetes is associated with increased expression of IGF-II/mannose-6-phosphate receptor in the fetal kidney.

We have recently demonstrated that the exposure to hyperglycemia in utero impairs nephrogenesis in rat fetuses (Amri K et al., Diabetes 48:2240-2245, 1999). Diabetic pregnancy is commonly associated with alterations in the IGF system in fetal tissues.

Overexpression of human insulin-like growth factor binding protein-1 in the mouse leads to nephron deficit.

IGFs and their binding proteins are important regulators of fetal development. We have previously reported that overexpression of the human IGF binding protein-1 in mice is associated with glomerulosclerosis. The aim of this study was to investigate whether, in that model, decreased bioavailability of IGFs also affected nephrogenesis.

Retinoids and nephron mass control.

Advances in the molecular biology of retinoids have provided evidence that vitamin A profoundly influences the differentiation of the whole embryo. In addition to its well-characterized role in primary body axis and central nervous system formation, vitamin A is also required for the ad hoc development of numerous tissues and organs, including the kidney. This review will focus on the emerging evidence that the development of the urogenital tract depends on retinoids.

Regulation of fatty acid transport protein and mitochondrial and peroxisomal beta-oxidation gene expression by fatty acids in developing rats.

Regulation of genes involved in fatty acid (FA) utilization in heart and liver of weanling rats was investigated in response to variations in dietary lipid content and to changes in intracellular FA homeostasis induced by etomoxir, a blocker of FA import into mitochondria. Northern-blot analyses were performed using cDNA probes specific for FA transport protein, a cell membrane FA transporter; long-chain- and medium-chain acyl-CoA dehydrogenases, which catalyze the first step of mitochondrial FA beta-oxidation; and acyl-CoA oxidase, a peroxisomal FA beta-oxidation marker. High-fat feeding from postnatal d 21 to 28 resulted in a coordinate increase (58 to 136%) in mRNA abundance of all genes in heart.

In utero and in vitro exposure to beta-lactams impair kidney development in the rat.

beta-Lactam antibiotics are widely used because of their lack of toxicity in humans. However, during pregnancy, exposure of the fetus is likely to occur because beta-lactam antibiotics cross the placenta. The potential adverse effects of two penicillins (ampicillin, amoxicillin) and of one cephalosporin (ceftriaxone) were examined in rat kidney development.

The number of nephrons in the mammalian kidney: environmental influences play a determining role.

Several lines of evidence, mostly derived from animal studies, indicate that changes in the fetal environment may affect the renal development. Fetal growth retardation is associated with a nephron deficit in both humans and animals. Changes in the supply of vitamin A to the fetus may be responsible for the variations in the number of nephrons in the human kidney.

Nephrotoxin exposure in utero reduces glomerular number in sclerosis-prone but not sclerosis-resistant mice.

Background: We have previously found that nephron number was not fixed, that is, there was a direct correlation between low birth weight and decreased nephron number in infants. In sclerosis-prone rats, we found that gentamicin exposure in utero induced a reduction in glomerular number and aggravated glomerulosclerosis in adults. In mice, we found that an inborn 50% reduction in nephron number, caused by the Os mutation, was associated with glomerulosclerosis in sclerosis-prone (ROP+/+) mice, but not in sclerosis-resistant (C57BL/6J) mice.

Adverse effects of hyperglycemia on kidney development in rats: in vivo and in vitro studies.

Congenital malformations occur more frequently in the offspring of diabetic mothers. These in vivo and in vitro studies investigate the potential adverse effects of hyperglycemia on kidney development in the rat. Female rats were made hyperglycemic throughout gestation with a single injection of streptozotocin (STZ) on day 0 of gestation, or for a short period encompassing the early stage of renal organogenesis by infusing glucose from gestational days 12-16.

Influence of fetal environment on kidney development.

Several lines of evidence, mostly derived from animal studies, indicate that changes in fetal environment may affect renal development. Besides maternal hyperglycemia or drug exposure, that were recently found to alter nephrogenesis, changes in vitamin A supply to the fetus may prove to be responsible for most of the variations in nephron number found in the population. A low vitamin A status in the fetus may be a major cause of inborn nephron deficit, either as a feature of intrauterine growth retardation or independently of growth retardation.

Mild vitamin A deficiency delays fetal lung maturation in the rat.

During late pregnancy, the fetal lung stores surfactant in preparation for extrauterine life. Surfactant deficiency, most often due to prematurity, precipitates respiratory distress syndrome (RDS) of the neonate. Although vitamin A (retinol) and retinoic acid have been shown to enhance the synthesis of phospholipid surfactant components, their effect on surfactant-specific proteins is unclear.

Role of retinoids in renal development: pathophysiological implication.

Vitamin A closely modulates nephron endowment at birth. It is also required for the development of renal vasculature. Fetal vitamin A status may thus be responsible for most of the variations in nephron number found in the general population, and may play a major role in the intrauterine programming of chronic renal disease and hypertension.

Mild vitamin A deficiency leads to inborn nephron deficit in the rat.

Background: Vitamin A plays a critical role in fetal organogenesis, and its severe deficiency during pregnancy is known to result in malformations of several organs, including the kidney. However, the consequences of mild vitamin A deficiency (VAD) has received little attention. In the present study, we examined the effect of in utero exposure to mild VAD on renal organogenesis.

Regulation of c-ret expression by retinoic acid in rat metanephros: implication in nephron mass control.

Vitamin A and its derivatives have been shown to promote kidney development in vitro in a dose-dependent fashion. To address the molecular mechanisms by which all-trans-retinoic acid (RA) may regulate the nephron mass, rat kidneys were removed on embryonic day 14 (E14) and grown in organ culture under standard or RA-stimulated conditions. By using RT-PCR, we studied the expression of the glial cell line-derived neurotrophic factor (GDNF), its cell surface receptor-alpha (GDNFR-alpha), and the receptor tyrosine kinase c-ret, known to play a major role in renal organogenesis.

Dietary lipids regulate beta-oxidation enzyme gene expression in the developing rat kidney.

This study examines the ability of dietary lipids to regulate gene expression of mitochondrial and peroxisomal fatty acid beta-oxidation enzymes in the kidney cortex and medulla of 3-wk-old rats and evaluates the role of glucagon or of the alpha-isoform of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor (PPARalpha) in mediating beta-oxidation enzyme gene regulation in the immature kidney. The long-chain (LCAD) and medium-chain acyl-CoA dehydrogenases (MCAD) and acyl-CoA oxidase (ACO) mRNA levels were found coordinately upregulated in renal cortex, but not in medulla, of pups weaned on a high-fat diet from day 16 to 21. Further results establish that switching pups from a low- to a high-fat diet for only 1 day was sufficient to induce large increases in cortical LCAD, MCAD, and ACO mRNA levels, and gavage experiments show that this upregulation of beta-oxidation gene expression is initiated within 6 h following lipid ingestion.

Tissue-specific regulation of medium-chain acyl-CoA dehydrogenase gene by thyroid hormones in the developing rat.

During development, gene expression of medium-chain acyl-CoA dehydrogenase (MCAD), a nuclear-encoded mitochondrial enzyme that catalyses the first step of medium-chain fatty acid beta-oxidation, is highly regulated in tissues in accordance with fatty acid utilization, but the factors involved in this regulation are largely unknown. To investigate a possible role of thyroid hormones, rat pups were made hypothyroid by the administration of propylthiouracyl to the mother from day 12 of gestation, and their kidneys, heart and liver were removed on postnatal day 16 to determine MCAD mRNA abundance, protein level and enzyme activity. Similar experiments were run in 3,3',5-tri-iodothyronine (T3)-replaced hypothyroid (1 microg of T3/100 g body weight from postnatal day 5 to 15) and euthyroid pups.

Birth-related changes in energy metabolism enzymes and Na-K-ATPase in kidney proximal convoluted tubule cells.

In the proximal convoluted tubule (PCT) of rat kidney, reabsorption is known to take place during fetal life, but no data on Na-K-ATPase and mitochondrial energy metabolism enzymes in this epithelium were available at fetal and neonatal stages. With use of the quantitative histochemistry approach, Na-K-ATPase, citrate synthase (tricarboxylic acid cycle), 3-ketoacid CoA-transferase and thiolase (ketone body oxidation), beta-hydroxyacyl-CoA dehydrogenase (fatty acid oxidation), and acetylcarnitine transferase (acetyl-CoA transport through mitochondrial membrane) were microassayed in PCT and metanephric mesenchyme of fetal and newborn rat kidney. The data indicate that, during fetal life, PCT differentiation involves concomitant increases in Na-K-ATPase and oxidative enzyme activities, supporting the hypothesis that mitochondria could play an active role in cellular ATP turnover when reabsorptive functions develop.

Rat metanephric organ culture in terato-embryology.

The development of the permanent mammalian kidney, or metanephros, depends on mesenchymal-epithelial interactions, leading to branching morphogenesis of the ureteric bud that forms the collecting ducts and to conversion of the metanephric mesenchyme into epithelium that forms the nephrons. Rat metanephric organ culture in which these interactions are maintained is a valuable in vitro model system for investigating normal and abnormal renal organogenesis. Methods were designed to evaluate either the capacity of the ureteric bud to branch or that of the mesenchyme to form nephrons.

Early defect in branching morphogenesis of the ureteric bud in induced nephron deficit.

Development of the metanephric kidney during embryogenesis can be altered both in vivo and in vitro by exposure to gentamicin, which may lead to oligonephronia. To study the role of the ureteric bud in nephron deficit genesis, we used metanephros organ cultures exposed to gentamicin as a model of impaired nephrogenesis. Ultrastructural localization of the antibiotic showed that by eight hours it was already present within the epithelial cells of the ureteric bud and in its growing ends, and also trapped in the adjacent blastema.

Effect of 3,5,3'-triiodothyronine on maturation of rat renal phosphate transport: kinetic characteristics and phosphate transporter messenger ribonucleic acid and protein abundance.

The plasma concentration of T3 increases during the third postnatal week in rats when the young are weaned. Renal phosphate (Pi) transport matures during this period, with increases in the carrier affinity for Na-cotransported Pi(1/K(m)) and in the maximal transport rate (Vmax). As prevention of weaning prevents the normal increase in the plasma T3 concentration and blocks the maturation of Pi transport, this study examines the influence of T3 on Pi transport maturation.

Metanephros organogenesis is highly stimulated by vitamin A derivatives in organ culture.

Vitamin A and its metabolic derivatives are known to be key signalling molecules in regulating morphogenetic events in vertebrate development. Here we investigated their possible involvement during mammalian kidney development using paired rat metanephros organ culture. Metanephroi were explanted from 14-day-old embryos and cultured for six days in a chemically defined medium containing a retinoid at a dose of 10(-11) to 10(-4) M.

Transcriptional regulation by glucocorticoids of mitochondrial oxidative enzyme genes in the developing rat kidney.

Mitochondrial fatty acid beta-oxidation plays a major role in providing the ATP required for reabsorptive processes in the adult rat kidney. However, the molecular mechanisms and signals involved in induction of the enzymes of fatty acid oxidation during development in this and other organs are unknown. We therefore studied the changes in the steady-state levels of mRNA encoding medium-chain acyl-CoA dehydrogenase (MCAD), which catalyses the initial step in mitochondrial fatty acid beta-oxidation, in the rat kidney cortex and medulla between postnatal days 10 and 30.