Part I. Optimizing the Usage of Models of Renal Disease Standards of Animal Care in Biological Experiments Ellen M. Levee Models of Polycystic Kidney Disease Poornima Upadhya Rat Models of the Metabolic Syndrome Stevan P. Tofovic and Edwin K. Jackson Models of Glomerulonephritis Raghu V. Durvasula and Stuart J. Shankland Part II. Choices of Imaging Techniques in Studies of Renal Disease Functional Studies of the Kidney with Magnetic Resonance Imaging Hani B. Marcos, Yantian Zhang, and Peter L. Choyke Use of Radionuclides to Study Renal Function Yiyan Liu and M. Donald Blaufox Intravital Videomicroscopy Tokunori Yamamoto and Fumihiko Kajiya Confocal and Two-Photon Microscopy Janos Peti-Peterdi and P. Darwin Bell Atomic Force Microscopy in Renal Physiology Robert M. Henderson Freeze-Fracture Analysis of Renal-Epithelial Tight Junctions Hiroyuki Sasaki Part III. Studies of Renal Development Organ Culture of Intact Metanephric Kidneys Simon J. M. Welham and Adrian S. Woolf The Ureteric Bud: Tissue-Culture Approaches to Branching Morphogenesis and Inductive Signaling Alan O. Perantoni Studies of Cell Lineage in the Developing Kidney Maria Luisa S. Sequeira Lopez and R. Ariel Gomez Transient Transfection Assays for Analysis of Signal Transduction in Renal Cells Robin L. Maser, Brenda S. Magenheimer, Christopher A. Zien, and James P. Calvet Part IV. Approaches to Study Molecular Mechanisms of Disease The Study of Gene Polymorphisms: How Complex Is Complex Genetic Disease? Sylvia Bahring, Atakan Aydin, and Friedrich C. Luft Laser-Capture Microdissection Laura Barisoni and Robert A. Star Serial Analysis of Gene Expression M. Ashraf El-Meanawy, Shrinath Barathan, Patrick S.Hayden, Sudha K. Iyengar, Jeffrey R. Schelling, and John R. Sedor RNA Labeling and Hybridization of DNA Microarrays Erwin P. Boettinger, Akiva Novetsky, and Jiri Zavadil Gene-Expression Analysis of Microdissected Renal Biopsies Clemens D. Cohen and Matthias Kretzler The Use of SELDI ProteinChip (R) Array Technology in Renal Disease Research Eric Fung, Deb Diamond, Anja Hviid Simonsesn, and Scot R. Weinberger Part V. Technical Means to Assess Functional Correlates of Disease Clearance Studies in Genetically Altered Mice William T. Noonan and John N. Lorenz Long-Term Blood-Pressure Monitoring in Unrestrained Animals Karen A. Griffin, Isam Abu-Amarah, and Anil K. Bidani In Vitro Studies on Renin Release Boye L. Jensen, Ulla G. Friis, and Ole Skott Mitochondrial Function Joel M. Weinberg and Pothana Saikumar Detection of Cysteine S-Nitrosylation and Tyrosine 3-Nitration in Kidney Proteins Mark Crabtree, Gang Hao, and Steven S. Gross Products of Arachidonic Acid Metabolism Mairead A. Carroll, John C. McGiff, and Nicholas R. Ferreri Methods for Measurements of Heme Oxygenase (HO) Isoforms-Mediated Synthesis of Carbon Monoxide and HO-1 and HO-2 Proteins Nader G. Abraham, Houli Jiang, Michael Balazy, and Alvin I. Goodman The Juxtamedullary Nephron Preparation Daniel Casellas and Leon C. Moore Tubuloglomerular Feedback Volker Vallon and Jurgen Schnermann Microdissected Perfused Vessels Thomas L. Pallone Renal Microperfusion Techniques Charles S. Wingo, I. David Weiner, and Shen-Ling Xia How to Design a Clinical Trial Bryan M. Curtis, Brendan J. Barrett, and Patrick S. Parfrey Conclusion Michael S. Goligorsky Index