BIOLOGY OF EARLY RENAL CYSTOGENESIS IN THE CPK MOUSE

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DESCRIPTION (Adapted from the investigator's Abstract): Emerging evidence indicates that renal cystic disease in both humans and mouse models involves a multigenic pathway in which the disease-susceptibility genes act by cellular recessive mechanisms. These genes also appear to play critical roles in renal differentiation and maturation. The cpk mouse was the first polycystic kidney disease (PKD) model to be described and as such, it has been the most extensively characterized. While these studies have significantly contributed to our understanding of renal cystic disease, they have been conducted primarily in mice with advanced renal cystic disease. Therefore, the critical relationship between the normal epithelial differentiation and the initial events of renal cyst formation remains to be elucidated and the molecular basis for the cpk phenotype is as yet unknown. The ultimate goals of the PI are (1) to characterize the role of the cpk gene product in renal development by determining the molecular pathways in which it functions, and (2) to elucidate how the loss of function of this gene causes renal cyst formation. In this grant application, the PI proposes to establish the biologic and molecular framework for these investigations. The proposal is divided into two complementary projects. First, in Aim 1, they propose to test whether the prevailing hypotheses regarding renal cystogenesis apply to the genetically-defined, fetal cpk model that they have recently characterized. Second, they propose to clone the cpk gene. Aim 2 deals with the construction of a complete transcript map of the critical cpk interval. Aim 3 deals with the identification of the cpk gene from the transcript map generated. In Aim 4 they propose to examine the temporal and spatial expression of the cpk gene during the stages of renal organogenesis, e.g. induction, acquisition of stem cell character, fate determination, condensation, epitheliogenesis, polarization, and maturation.