__Bones can break, muscles can atrophy, glands can loaf, even the brain can go to sleep, without immediately endangering our survival, but when the kidneys fail to manufacture the proper kind of... Show more__Bones can break, muscles can atrophy, glands can loaf, even the brain can go to sleep, without immediately endangering our survival, but when the kidneys fail to manufacture the proper kind of blood neither bone, muscle, gland nor brain can carry on__. This quote from Homer Smith's book 'From Fish to Philosopher' indicates the importance of the kidney for the maintenance of the harmonious composition of body fluids __ a function the kidney performs in a way that joins efficacy with elegance. Some of these processes are lined out in this thesis. The first chapter gives an introduction to kidney development, anatomy, and function, as well as a description of malfunction of the kidney, focusing on the development of proteinuria and failure of kidney transplants. The subsequent chapters describe studies that have been performed to investigate the biological mechanism that underly the development of proteinuria and long-term renal transplant failure. Show less
