Palmyre, AurélienLee, JeongeunRyklin, GennadiyCamarata, TroySelig, Martin K.Duchemin, Anne-LaureNowak, PaulArnaout, M.Drummond, IainVasilyev, Aleksandr2014-08-132014Palmyre, Aurélien, Jeongeun Lee, Gennadiy Ryklin, Troy Camarata, Martin K. Selig, Anne-Laure Duchemin, Paul Nowak, M. Amin Arnaout, Iain A. Drummond, and Aleksandr Vasilyev. 2014. “Collective Epithelial Migration Drives Kidney Repair after Acute Injury.” PLoS ONE 9 (7): e101304. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0101304. http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0101304.1932-6203http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:12717508Acute kidney injury (AKI) is a common and significant medical problem. Despite the kidney’s remarkable regenerative capacity, the mortality rate for the AKI patients is high. Thus, there remains a need to better understand the cellular mechanisms of nephron repair in order to develop new strategies that would enhance the intrinsic ability of kidney tissue to regenerate. Here, using a novel, laser ablation-based, zebrafish model of AKI, we show that collective migration of kidney epithelial cells is a primary early response to acute injury. We also show that cell proliferation is a late response of regenerating kidney epithelia that follows cell migration during kidney repair. We propose a computational model that predicts this temporal relationship and suggests that cell stretch is a mechanical link between migration and proliferation, and present experimental evidence in support of this hypothesis. Overall, this study advances our understanding of kidney repair mechanisms by highlighting a primary role for collective cell migration, laying a foundation for new approaches to treatment of AKI.en-USBiology and Life SciencesDevelopmental BiologyMedicine and Health SciencesNephrologyModel OrganismsJournal Article2014-08-1310.1371/journal.pone.0101304