Glomerular epithelial and mesangial cell culture and characterization.

Culture of isolated kidney glomerular cells has been employed for almost four decades as a tool to dissect pathophysiological effects of individual cell types in renal disease. This chapter aims to highlight in detail the available techniques to isolate, culture, and characterize human glomerular epithelial and mesangial cells. To establish primary culture of these cells, glomeruli are isolated from the cortex of kidney by differential sieving and cellular outgrowths from cultured glomeruli further subcultured in appropriately coated tissue culture plates/flasks. Methods used for characterization of isolated glomerular mesangial and epithelial cells (podocytes) are described as are the phenotypic markers useful for identification. Other sources of isolated glomerular cells such as immortalized cell lines are briefly discussed.