Kidney aging is associated with an increasing proportion of globally scarred glomeruli,
decreasing renal function, and exponentially increasing ESRD prevalence. In model
systems, podocyte depletion causes glomerulosclerosis, suggesting age-associated
glomerulosclerosis could be caused by a similar mechanism. We measured podocyte
number, size, density, and glomerular volume in 89 normal kidney samples from living and
deceased kidney donors and normal poles of nephrectomies. Podocyte nuclear density …