ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Cell Dev. Biol.
Sec. Molecular and Cellular Pathology
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fcell.2025.1653967
This article is part of the Research TopicRegenerative Mechanisms in Zebrafish Kidney Development and Injury ResponseView all articles
A Comparative Transcriptomics Analysis of Mammalian and Non-Mammalian Acute Kidney Injury (AKI) Models
Provisionally accepted
- University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, United States
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Acute kidney injury (AKI) is a complex condition marked by abrupt loss of renal function and widespread transcriptional changes. While single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) has illuminated key aspects of AKI in human and mouse kidneys, the transcriptional landscape of zebrafish, axolotls, and spiny mouse— species capable of kidney regeneration—remains underexplored. Here, we expand upon previous cross-species AKI analysis by incorporating newly available RNA-seq data from the zebrafish, axolotl, and spiny mouse AKI models. We performed a comparative transcriptomic analysis across each of these five models focusing on unique transcriptional programs during injury and recovery, and conserved gene expression signatures across species. Differential expression and gene ontology analyses revealed both shared and regeneration-specific pathways, offering new insights into the molecular mechanisms of AKI and potential links to renal development and repair. Our findings highlight the value of non-traditional animal models as a comparative model for studying kidney regeneration and underscore the evolutionary conservation and divergence of injury responses.
Keywords: Acute Kidney Injury, comparative transcriptomics, Regeneration, Zebrafish, Spiny mouse, Axolotl, Nephron
Received: 25 Jun 2025; Accepted: 28 Aug 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Hawkins, Cervera, Tang and Wingert. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Matthew R Hawkins, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, United States
Rebecca Ann Wingert, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, United States
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