The cellular composition of crescents in glomerular disease is controversial. The role of
podocytes in crescent formation has been especially difficult to study because podocytes
typically lose their characteristic terminally differentiated phenotype under disease
conditions, making them difficult to identify. We reasoned that the intermediate filament
protein nestin, a marker of progenitor cells that has recently been identified in podocytes,
may allow the investigation of podocyte involvement in glomerular crescents. In a series of …