How the developing mammalian kidney assembles its thousands of nephrons: Fgfs as stemness signals.
In this issue of Developmental Cell, Barak et al. (2012) identify a critical role for Fgf9 and Fgf20 signaling in the nephron progenitors of the developing mammalian kidney. These Fgfs serve as survival and nephron-forming competence signals for purified Six2+ cells that represent the progenitors that normally go on to generate nephrons.
Biocenter Oulu, Laboratory of Developmental Biology and Department of Medical Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Institute of Biomedicine, Oulu Center for Cell Matrix Research, University of Oulu, P.O. Box 5000, Oulu FIN-90014, Finland. seppo.vainio@oulu.fi
Seppo
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Vainio