The glomerular transcriptome and proteome

Histopathology provides the current basis for classification and diagnosis of glomerular disorders. Molecular profiling methods, such as microarray analysis of mRNA expression, have rapidly emerged over the past years and are now applicable to minute amounts of tissue material, such as glomeruli from embryos or adult experimental animals, or from human renal needle biopsies. This review summarizes current efforts aiming at the determination of the glomerular transcriptome and proteome during development, in the healthy adult, and in disease. These studies are encouraging and show that comprehensive molecular profiling of the kidney glomerulus will most likely provide significant new insights into the normal structure and function of the glomerular filter, the molecular mechanisms of glomerular development, the diagnosis and classification of glomerular disease, and the pathogenic mechanisms underlying the stepwise breakdown of glomerular filter function that accompanies several common systemic disorders.