Renal Structure and Function of Desert Rodents

关于哺乳动物肾脏的一个长期存在的生物学问题围绕着肾髓质在每分钟和每天维持水分平衡方面的作用。肾脏在保持水分的同时排泄废物的能力在身体失水(如运动)或水分摄入量低(如过夜)时尤为重要。哺乳动物肾脏的肾单位(肾小管)和血管被组装成精细的管状网络。肾单位和血管相互作用，以高度协调的方式在许多空间上不同的隔室之间交换水和溶质，以产生浓缩在溶质中的尿液。这项研究项目将重点放在袋鼠的肾脏上。这种沙漠动物很少喝水，因此，预计它的肾脏将是研究尿液浓缩机制的理想系统。将对袋鼠肾脏不同肾单位段的蛋白质表达和功能进行生理、分子和计算研究，以更清楚地确定水和溶质如何在肾脏髓质内运动。根据这些研究开发的模型将揭示这些液体和溶质交换如何在维持整个生物体的适当水平衡方面发挥作用的基本见解。学生将在这个研究项目中扮演中心角色，通过这样做，他们将获得细胞生物学、系统生理学和计算方法的研究经验。

A long-standing biological question regarding the mammalian kidney revolves around the role of the renal medulla in maintaining water balance on a minute-to-minute and day-to-day basis. The kidney's ability to excrete wastes while conserving water is especially important during periods when the body is losing water (e.g. exercise) or when water intake is low (e.g. sleeping overnight). The nephrons (kidney tubules) and blood vessels of the mammalian kidney are assembled into elaborate tubular networks. The nephrons and vessels interact with each other, exchanging water and solutes among many spatially-distinct compartments in a highly orchestrated manner in order to produce a urine that is concentrated in solutes. This research project will focus on the kidney of the kangaroo rat. This desert animal rarely drinks water and, therefore, it is anticipated that its kidney will be an ideal system to study the urinary concentrating mechanism. Physiological, molecular, and computational studies of protein expression and function in the various nephron segments of the kangaroo rat kidney will be carried out so as to more clearly define how water and solutes move within the medulla of the kidney. Models developed from these studies will reveal fundamental insights into how these fluid and solute exchanges play a role in maintaining proper water balance in the whole organism. Students will play a central role in this research project and by doing so they will gain research experience in cell biology, systems physiology, and computational approaches.