Science Spotlight: Estrogen drives kidney cell plasticity in preeclampsia

University of Florence researchers uncovered a targetable pathway underlying kidney health in pregnancy and preeclampsia, a complication often requiring premature delivery of the baby. The findings suggest that preeclampsia, previously considered primarily a vascular/placental disorder, may have kidney adaptation failure at its core.

The authors of the Science article revealed that renal progenitor cells are responsive to female sex hormones, showing increased proliferation and differentiation into kidney podocytes in response to estrogen and progesterone. Single-cell RNA sequencing of renal progenitor cells from female mice at different physiological stages revealed that this phenomenon starts at puberty and accelerates as the kidneys adapt to the workload of pregnancy...