Skip to main content

PERSPECTIVE article

Front. Endocrinol.
Sec. Cellular Endocrinology
Volume 5 - 2014 | doi: 10.3389/fendo.2014.00209
This article is part of the Research Topic Metabolism, energetics, and lipid biology in the podocyte View all 4 articles

The podocyte power-plant disaster and its contribution to glomerulopathy

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Proper podocyte function within the glomerulus demands a high and continuous energy supply that is mainly derived from the respiratory chain of the inner mitochondrial membrane. Dysregulations in the metabolic homoeostasis of podocytes may result in podocyte damage and glomerular disease. This article highlights the current knowledge about podocyte energy supply by the respiratory chain. We review the regulation of mitochondrial oxidative metabolism with regard to podocytopathy and discuss the latest understanding of different mitochondrial dysfunctions of the podocyte in diabetic nephropathy and focal segmental glomerulosclerosis (FSGS). We discuss genetic forms of mitochondriopathy of the podocyte and end with recent knowledge about crosstalk between NADH and NADPH and potential therapeutic options for podocyte mitochondriopathy. We aim to raise awareness for the complex and interesting mechanisms of podocyte damage by impaired energy supply that, despite of novel findings in recent years, is poorly understood so far.

    Keywords: Mitochondria, podocyte, mitochondriopathy, energy supply, diabetic nephropathy, FSGS

    Received: 31 Aug 2014; Accepted: 21 Nov 2014.

    Copyright: © 2014 Müller-Deile and Schiffer. 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.

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.