Greg Dressler, Ph.D., Professor of Pathology, Co-Director, Center for Organogenesis

This is a scanning electron micrograph of the glomerular tuft in an adult mouse kidney. These beautiful interdigitated processes are made by cells called podocytes; these processes surround the capillary network and separate the blood space from the urinary space. This forms the so-called slit barrier through which the blood is filtered into the urinary space. The structure and function of these podocyte cells are highly conserved in mammals, including humans.

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