What Is a Podocyte?

Podocytes, visceral epithelial cells of the renal sac, are attached to the outer side of the glomerular basement membrane (GBM) and together with vascular endothelial cells and the glomerular basement membrane constitute the glomerular hemofiltration barrier. The special anatomical location of podocytes makes it difficult to study them in vivo; and because the kidney podocytes of normal adult organisms are terminally differentiated cells, primary cells cultured in vitro cannot proliferate.

Podocytes

Podocyte, the epithelial cell of the visceral layer of the renal capsule, which attaches to

So in the past podocyte in vitro research work has been carried out very little. It was not until the mid-1990s that transgenic methods were used to establish a conditionally cultured immortal mouse podocyte line.

Podocytes are stellate polyprojects, with large cell bodies, and many protrusions from the cell bodies, also known as foot processes (FPs), cover the outer surface of GBM in fingers, and are connected to GBM through adhesion molecules and proteoglycan molecules. Scanning electron microscope observation showed that the cell body extended several large primary foot processes, and then separated many finger-like secondary processes. The secondary protrusions between two adjacent podocytes are interspersed with each other, forming a fence-like shape, which is close to the capillaries

Podocyte, a specialized wall-thick, expanded mycelium cell in Aspergillus. It bears conidia, through which conidia are connected to vegetative hyphae.