Many kidney diseases, including nephrotic syndrome (NS) and acute kidney injury (AKI) are difficult to cure and in this thesis the recovery of kidney cell types was investigated. Increased fatty acid metabolism was found in podocytes in NS, and lowering this prevented podocyte injury. This could be a new treatment strategy after safety and effectivity have been further evaluated. The cells responsible for recovery after AKI are not identical, and further research should uncover which of these cells are supporting recovery and should be stimulated and which cells are counteracting recovery and should be removed/targeted to stimulate recovery after AKI. Finally, mini kidneys made from stem cells are a much better model to study kidney diseases compared to alternatives, and it is possible to model kidney diseases in this model system. Altogether, we hope to find better treatment options for patients with kidney diseases using advanced mini kidneys and the information obtained from this research.
Martijn (1994) obtained his Life Sciences degree with compliments from the HAN University of Applied Sciences (2016) and his Master in Medical Biology from Radboud University (2019). In 2020 he started his PhD at the departments of Pathology and Pediatric Nephrology of Radboud university medical center. Currently, he is investigating malaria as postdoctoral researcher at Radboud University. In October he will return to the department of Pediatric Nephrology as postdoctoral researcher.