Cyst Growth Important for ADPKD Pathogenesis

Research in mice indicates that growth of renal cysts likely plays a central role in early-stage ADPKD-associated hypertension, with activation of the intrarenal renin–angiotensin system as a key mechanism. Cyst growth may also be the main determinant in renal concentrating deficit, an early finding in ADPKD, because maximum urine osmolality and urine nitrite excretion were reduced in young cystic mice but not in noncystic controls. The findings, published in Kidney International, were discovered by researchers who bred a Pkd1 floxed allele with a nestin-Cre expressing line to generate cystic mice with preserved GFR.