Cellular crescents are a defining histologic finding in many forms of inflammatory
glomerulonephritis. Despite numerous studies, the origin of glomerular crescents remains
unresolved. A genetic cell lineage-mapping study with a novel transgenic mouse model was
performed to investigate whether visceral glomerular epithelial cells, termed podocytes, are
precursors of cells that populate cellular crescents. The podocyte-specific 2.5 P-Cre mouse
line was crossed with the ROSA26 reporter line, resulting in irreversible constitutive …