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Urea Transporter Knockout Mice and Their Renal Phenotypes

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Urea Transporters

Part of the book series: Subcellular Biochemistry ((SCBI,volume 73))

Abstract

Urea transporter gene knockout mice have been created for the study of the urine-concentrating mechanism. The major findings in studies of the renal phenotype of these mice are as follows: (1) Urea accumulation in the inner medullary interstitium is dependent on intrarenal urea recycling mediated by urea transporters; (2) urea transporters are essential for preventing urea-induced osmotic diuresis and thus for water conservation; (3) NaCl concentration in the inner medullary interstitium is not significantly affected by the absence of IMCD, descending limb of Henle and descending vasa recta urea transporters. Studies in urea transporter knockout mouse models have highlighted the essential role of urea for producing maximally concentrated urine.

Baoxue Yang—Co-corresponding author.

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Acknowledgements

Research in the author’s laboratory is supported by the Danish Medical Research Council, the Lundbeck Foundation, the Novo Nordisk Foundation, the Aarhus University Research Foundation, and the Carlsberg Foundation (RAF); and National Natural Science Foundation of China grants 30500171, 30870921, 31200869, 81261160507, and 81170632, Drug Discovery Program grant 2009ZX09301-010-30, the Research Fund for the Doctoral Program of Higher Education 20100001110047, and the 111 project, International Science and Technology Cooperation Program of China 2012DFA11070 (BY).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biomedicine, Interpret Center, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Building 233/234, 8000, Aarhus, Denmark

    Robert A. Fenton

  2. State Key Laboratory of Natural and Biomimetic Drugs, Key Laboratory of Molecular Cardiovascular Sciences, Ministry of Education, Department of Pharmacology, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Peking University, Beijing, 100191, China

    Baoxue Yang

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  1. Robert A. Fenton
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  2. Baoxue Yang
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Correspondence to Robert A. Fenton .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. School of Basic Medical Sciences, Department of Pharmacology, Peking University, Beijing, China

    Baoxue Yang

  2. Renal Division, Department of Medicine and Department of Physiology, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, Georgia, USA

    Jeff M. Sands

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Fenton, R.A., Yang, B. (2014). Urea Transporter Knockout Mice and Their Renal Phenotypes. In: Yang, B., Sands, J. (eds) Urea Transporters. Subcellular Biochemistry, vol 73. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-9343-8_9

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