title: New structural insights into podocyte biology.
abstract: The last 5 years have witnessed tremendous advances in both light- and electron-microscopic techniques in the biomedical sciences. Application of these new cutting-edge methods to glomerular biology has advanced considerably and, in part, completed our endeavor to draw a detailed map of the glomerular tuft. The scope of this review is to illustrate these new insights within both the morphometry of podocyte cells and the architecture of the glomerular filtration barrier and to assess whether these findings have indeed had an impact on our biological understanding of glomerular function.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine IV, Medical Center and Faculty of Medicine, University of Freiburg, Breisacherstrasse 66, 79106, Freiburg, Germany. florian.grahammer@uniklinik-freiburg.de.|III. Medical Clinic, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Martinistrasse 52, 20246, Hamburg, Germany. florian.grahammer@uniklinik-freiburg.de.
authors.forename: Florian
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Grahammer
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D050533:Glomerular Basement Membrane / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000648:ultrastructure*; D006801:Humans; D050199:Podocytes / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000648:ultrastructure*
keywords: Glomerular basement membrane; Glomerulum; Podocyte; Renal filtration; Slit diaphragm