Insulin signalling to the podocyte; pathological importance and therapeutic potential.

世界上发展为终末期肾功能衰竭的人数正在迅速增加，这主要是由于这种情况与糖尿病有关。当这种情况发生时，患者需要多种药物治疗，加上透析或肾移植，否则他们就会死亡。因此，发现预防肾衰竭的新方法至关重要。我们发现，肾脏中的一种叫做足细胞的细胞与肾脏疾病的早期阶段有关(在肾脏完全衰竭之前)，这种细胞对一种名为胰岛素的激素有反应。看来这个细胞需要胰岛素才能保持健康。我们现在想确切地了解胰岛素是如何向足细胞发出信号的，并探索提高足细胞对胰岛素的敏感性是否可以防止肾脏完全衰竭。如果这是真的，那么增加足细胞胰岛素敏感性的策略在预防肾衰竭和阻止患者需要透析或肾移植方面可能具有巨大的治疗潜力。

The number of people in the world who are developing end stage kidney failure is rapidly increasing principally due to this condition being associated with diabetes. When this occurs patients require multiple medications, together with dialysis or kidney transplantation, or they die. Discovering new ways to prevent kidney failure is therefore critical. We have discovered that a cell, called the podocyte, in the kidney is implicated in the early stages of kidney disease (before the kidney completely fails) and this cell is responsive to a hormone called insulin. It appears that this cell needs insulin to remain healthy. We now want to understand exactly how insulin signals to the podocyte and explore if increasing insulin sensitivity of the this cell can prevent the kidney from completely failing. If this is true then strategies that increase podocyte insulin sensitivity could have great therapeutic potential in preventing kidney failure and stopping patients needing dialysis or kidney transplantation.