Tracing the Life of the Kidney Tubule- Re-Establishing Dogma and Redirecting the Options

Abstract

Renal pathology suggests that tubular repair results from tubular proliferation. In contrast, recent studies propose that postnatal kidney repair may involve renal stem cells. In this issue of Cell Stem Cell, Humphreys et al. (2008) use lineage tracing to genetically assess contribution of adult nontubular cells (potentially stem cells) to repair of damaged renal tubules. © 2008 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.