Evidence map›Paper›PMID 42798819›Full record

ArticleFrontiers in network physiology2026

The nephron arterial network and its interactions: nonlinear and information theoretic analyses.

Donald J Marsh, Niels-Henrik Holstein-Rathlou

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Frontiers in network physiology, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
0citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

0 citing papers in PubMed.

No citing paper in PubMed yet.

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

2 authors.

Donald J MarshDepartment of Medical Sciences, Division of Medicine and Biological Sciences, Brown University, Providence, RI, United States.
Niels-Henrik Holstein-RathlouDepartment of Biomedical Sciences, Panum Institute, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Nephrons receive blood from a tree-shaped network of arteries and arterioles and regulate demand by actions that affect the diameters of their afferent arterioles. The network structure is asymmetric. The flow of blood requires a gradient of hydrostatic pressure so that the blood pressure at the origins of different afferent arterioles must differ from each other. Nephron mechanisms that act on afferent arterioles include a myogenic mechanism, a common feature of smooth muscle cells throughout the body, and tubuloglomerular feedback (TGF), a negative feedback mechanism that senses concentrations of common electrolytes in tubular fluid as it passes from the thick ascending limb into the distal tubule. The myogenic mechanism generates an autonomous oscillation in the electrical potential difference of the plasma membrane. The TGF signal also oscillates, albeit at a lower frequency, and modulates the frequency and amplitude of the myogenic mechanism's potential difference oscillation. The interaction of TGF with the myogenic mechanism generates a bimodal electrical signal that enters the adjacent arterial segment. The arterial segments of the network are electrically conductive, providing a channel for nephrons to interact with each other. In addition, the oscillation of nephron blood flow caused by the myogenic-TGF interaction leads to changes in local arterial blood pressure, providing a hemodynamic interaction among nephrons. We developed a mathematical model that incorporates these features. The model demonstrates renal autoregulation and the oscillations in tubular fluid flow and pressure found in experiments. The results illustrate the effects of interactions on the network. In this paper we estimate Lyapunov exponents to establish the dynamic state of each nephron, and mutual information to provide quantitative evaluations of the importance of each of the information streams on nephron dynamics. The results indicate that all nephrons operate in a state of weak chaotic dynamics and that electrical signaling through the arteries exerts a greater influence on nephron dynamics than do hemodynamic interactions. Chaotic attractors are sensitive to initial conditions, and we suggest that the nephron cluster is therefore sensitive to the information streams in the system, enabling the cluster to adapt to changing external conditions.

Indexed as

arterial networkautoregulationchaoskidneymutual informationnetwork physiologyoscillationrenal blood flow

Identifiers

PMID42798819
PMCPMC13613052

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.