Telomerase at the center of collapsing glomerulopathy

Abstract

Collapsing glomerulopathy, the classic kidney lesion in HIV-associated nephropathy, is characterized by the closure of glomerular capillary loops and epithelial cell proliferation. A new study shows that upregulation of TERT, the reverse transcriptase component of telomerase, in podocytes, the key filtration cells in the kidney, plays a major part in the development of this condition by activating Wnt signaling (pages 111–119).