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Fragility of foot process morphology in kidney podocytes arises from chaotic spatial propagation of cytoskeletal instability.
- Source :
-
PLoS computational biology [PLoS Comput Biol] 2017 Mar 16; Vol. 13 (3), pp. e1005433. Date of Electronic Publication: 2017 Mar 16 (Print Publication: 2017). - Publication Year :
- 2017
-
Abstract
- Kidney podocytes' function depends on fingerlike projections (foot processes) that interdigitate with those from neighboring cells to form the glomerular filtration barrier. The integrity of the barrier depends on spatial control of dynamics of actin cytoskeleton in the foot processes. We determined how imbalances in regulation of actin cytoskeletal dynamics could result in pathological morphology. We obtained 3-D electron microscopy images of podocytes and used quantitative features to build dynamical models to investigate how regulation of actin dynamics within foot processes controls local morphology. We find that imbalances in regulation of actin bundling lead to chaotic spatial patterns that could impair the foot process morphology. Simulation results are consistent with experimental observations for cytoskeletal reconfiguration through dysregulated RhoA or Rac1, and they predict compensatory mechanisms for biochemical stability. We conclude that podocyte morphology, optimized for filtration, is intrinsically fragile, whereby local transient biochemical imbalances may lead to permanent morphological changes associated with pathophysiology.
- Subjects :
- Cell Polarity
Cell Size
Cell Surface Extensions physiology
Cells, Cultured
Computer Simulation
Humans
Nonlinear Dynamics
Spatio-Temporal Analysis
Actin Cytoskeleton pathology
Actin Cytoskeleton physiology
Cell Surface Extensions pathology
Models, Biological
Podocytes pathology
Podocytes physiology
Subjects
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 1553-7358
- Volume :
- 13
- Issue :
- 3
- Database :
- MEDLINE
- Journal :
- PLoS computational biology
- Publication Type :
- Academic Journal
- Accession number :
- 28301477
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1005433