@article{3154069,
    title = "The pine-cone body: an intermediate structure between the cap mesenchyme
and the renal vesicle in the developing nod mouse kidney revealed by an
ultrastructural study",
    author = "Piludu, Marco and Fanos, Vassilios and Congiu, Terenzio and Piras, and Monica and Gerosa, Clara and Mocci, Cristina and Fanni, Daniela and and Nemolato, Sonia and Muntoni, Sandro and Iacovidou, Nicoletta and Faa, and Gavino",
    journal = "Journal of Maternal-Fetal and Neonatal Medicine",
    year = "2012",
    volume = "25",
    number = "5",
    pages = "72-75",
    publisher = "TAYLOR & FRANCIS LTD LONDON",
    issn = "1476-7058, 1476-4954",
    doi = "10.3109/14767058.2012.714645",
    keywords = "Electron microscopy; glomerulogenesis; nephrons; nephrogenesis",
    abstract = "Nephrogenesis is mainly characterized by the interaction of two distinct
renal constituents, the ureteric bud and the metanephric mesenchyme. In
this paper we describe by means of light and electron microscopic
techniques the morphological events that take place during the early
stages of cap mesenchymal formation. Samples of normal renal tissue were
excised from newborn NOD mice and processed by standard light and
electron microscopy techniques. In all samples examined we detected the
presence of several cap mesenchymal aggregates in different stages of
differentiation. They varied from small solid nodules with few ovoid
cells to bigger pine-cone-like aggregates, characterized by a peculiar
distribution and morphology of their cellular constituents. Our data
highlight, for the first time, the presence of a specific cap
mesenchymal structure, the pine-cone body and show, at ultrastructural
level, how each cap aggregate epithelializes proceeding in stages from a
condensed mesenchymal aggregate to the renal vesicle, through the
intermediate “pine-cone body” stage."
}