2008 JASN IMPACT FACTOR 7.505	HOME   AUTHOR INFO   EDITORIAL BOARD   SUBSCRIBE   FEEDBACK   ALERTS   HELP
advanced	CURRENT ISSUE	ARCHIVES	JASN Express	ONLINE SUBMISSION

This Article Full Text Full Text (PDF) All Versions of this Article: ASN.2008111206v1 21/1/24    most recent Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Citation Map Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Google Scholar Articles by Lye, C. M. Articles by Woolf, A. S. PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Lye, C. M. Articles by Woolf, A. S.

Ureter Myogenesis: Putting Teashirt into Context

Claire M. Lye^*, Laurent Fasano and Adrian S. Woolf

*Department of Physiology, Development, and Neuroscience, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge, United Kingdom;
Institut de Biologie du Développement de Marseille-Luminy, UMR 6216, CNRS, Université de la Méditerranée, Campus de Luminy, F-13288, Marseille, France; and
Nephro-Urology Unit, University College London Institute of Child Health, London, United Kingdom

Correspondence: Dr. Adrian S. Woolf, Nephro-Urology Unit, UCL Institute of Child Health, 30 Guilford Street, London WC1N 1EH, United Kingdom. Phone: 00-44-(0)20 7905-2615; Fax: 00-44-(0)20-7905-2133; E-mail a.woolf{at}ich.ucl.ac.uk

After the basic shape of the mammalian ureter is established, its epithelia mature and a coat of smooth muscle cells differentiate around nascent urothelia. The ureter actively propels tubular fluid from the renal pelvis to the bladder, and this peristalsis, which starts in the fetal period, requires coordinated smooth muscle contraction. Teashirt-3 (Tshz3) is expressed in smooth muscle cell precursors that form the wall of the forming mammalian ureter. The Teashirt gene family was first identified in Drosophila where Teashirt (Tsh) protein acts as a transcription factor directing embryonic anterior-posterior patterning and leg and eye development. In fly embryonic renal tubules, Tsh is expressed in mesodermally derived stellate cells intercalating between principal cells, and a paralogue, tiptop, is expressed in forming tubules. Teashirt is a component of several gene networks in flies and it is notable that similar networks control mammalian renal tract development. Null mutation of Tshz3 in mice leads to failure of functional muscularization in the top of the ureter and this is followed by congenital hydronephrosis. A signaling pathway can be envisaged, starting with sonic hedgehog secreted by the nascent ureteric urothelium and ending with ureteric smooth muscle cell differentiation, with Tshz3 downstream of bone morphogenetic protein 4 and upstream of myocardin and smooth muscle cell contractile protein synthesis. The phenotype of Tshz3 mutant mice resembles that of human congenital pelviureteric junction obstruction, and we suggest these individuals may have mutations of genes encoding molecules in the differentiation pathway mediated by Tshz3.

Copyright © 2009 by the American Society of Nephrology. Online ISSN: 1533-3450 Print ISSN: 1046-6673