Scanning ion conductance microscopy reveals how a functional renal epithelial monolayer maintains its integrity

SICM is a powerful tool for research on living renal epithelial cells, and has been used to elucidate how a functional epithelial monolayer maintains its integrity. Using this technique we have observed that during hypertonic stress and regeneration, an organized sequence of events protect the loss of integrity of monolayer so that tight junctions and cell-cell contact are maintained and disruption to the function of whole monolayer is prevented.