The purpose of this application is to request financial support from the NIH for the 6th International Podocyte Symposium to be held June 8-11, 2006 in Helsinki, Finland. The podocyte (also called visceral glomerular epithelial cell), is a terminally differentiated cell that is the target of injury in diabetic (1) and non-diabetic kidney diseases (2), resulting in chronic and endstage renal failure. The incidence of chronic and endstage renal disease is increasing annually in the US at an alarming rate (3). There are a number of reasons for this, including the burden of complications related to diabetes (diabetic nephropathy) and hypertension. Both the nephritic and nephrotic forms of glomerular disease remain leading causes of kidney failure worldwide. It is predicted that the major cause of renal disease in Africa in the next decade will be HIV associated nephropathy, which is a disease characterized by injury primarily to the podocyte. Studies have shown that nephrotic syndrome is primarily a disease of the podocyte. The leading causes of nephrotic syndrome in adults includes focal segmental glomerulosclerosis (FSGS), membranous nephropathy, minimal change disease and diabetic nephropathy. The leading cause of nephrotic syndrome in children is minimal change disease. However, studies have also shown that podocyte number is a critical determinant of prognosis in nephritic diseases such as IgA nephropathy, the leading cause of nephritis worldwide (4). Taken together, understanding of the latest developments in podocyte biology and pathobiology is critical to the future treatment of glomerular disease. Moreover, this is an exciting era in podocytes biology given the large body of literature that has been published in the past 2-5 years. ? ? ?
