A compartment of the renal cortex situated between basement membranes of epithelia and vessels that contains two contiguous cellular networks in mutual contact, one formed by interstitial fibroblasts, the other by dendritic cells. [ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18575881 ]
Term information
A compartment of the renal cortex situated between basement membranes of epithelia and vessels that contains two contiguous cellular networks in mutual contact, one formed by interstitial fibroblasts, the other by dendritic cells.
In the renal cortex, interstitial fibroblasts produce erythropoietin and are distinguished from other interstitial cells by their prominent F-actin cytoskeleton, abundance of rough endoplasmic reticulum, and by ecto-5'-nucleotidase expression in their plasma membrane. The resident dendritic cells belong to the mononuclear phagocyte system and fulfil a sentinel function. They are characterized by their expression of MHC class II and CD11c.