Lin28 sustains early renal progenitors and induces Wilms tumor

Wilms Tumor, the most common pediatric kidney cancer, evolves from the failure of terminal differentiation of the embryonic kidney. Here we show that over-expression of the heterochronic regulator Lin28 during kidney development in mice markedly expands nephrogenic progenitors by blocking their final wave of differentiation, ultimately resulting in pathology highly reminiscent of Wilms tumor. Gene expression analysis was performed on a total of 8 kidneys samples, including 4 tumors samples from Lin28 transgenic mice and 4 control kidneys