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The urothelium: a multi-faceted barrier against a harsh environment

All mucosal surfaces must deal with the challenge of exposure to the outside world. The urothelium is a highly specialized layer of stratified epithelial cells lining the inner surface of the urinary bladder, a gruelling environment involving significant stretch forces, osmotic and hydrostatic pressures, toxic substances, and microbial invasion. The urinary bladder plays an important barrier role and allows the accommodation and expulsion of large volumes of urine without permitting urine components to diffuse across. The urothelium is made up of three cell types, basal, intermediate, and umbrella cells, whose specialized functions aid in the bladder’s mission. In this review, we summarize the recent insights into urothelial structure, function, development, regeneration, and in particular the role of umbrella cells in barrier formation and maintenance. We briefly review diseases which involve the bladder and discuss current human urothelial in vitro models as a complement to traditional animal studies.

The impact of biological sex on diseases of the urinary tract

Biological sex, being female or male, broadly influences diverse immune phenotypes, including immune responses to diseases at mucosal surfaces. Sex hormones, sex chromosomes, sexual dimorphism, and gender differences all contribute to how an organism will respond to diseases of the urinary tract, such as bladder infection or cancer. Although the incidence of urinary tract infection is strongly sex biased, rates of infection change over a lifetime in women and men, suggesting that accompanying changes in the levels of sex hormones may play a role in the response to infection. Bladder cancer is also sex biased in that 75% of newly diagnosed patients are men. Bladder cancer development is shaped by contributions from both sex hormones and sex chromosomes, demonstrating that the influence of sex on disease can be complex. With a better understanding of how sex influences disease and immunity, we can envision sex-specific therapies to better treat diseases of the urinary tract and potentially diseases of other mucosal tissues.

Timing is everything: impact of development, ageing and circadian rhythm on macrophage functions in urinary tract infections

The bladder supports a diversity of macrophage populations with functional roles related to homeostasis and host defense, including clearance of cell debris from tissue, immune surveillance, and inflammatory responses. This review examines these roles with particular attention given to macrophage origins, differentiation, recruitment, and engagement in host defense against urinary tract infections (UTIs), where these cells recognize uropathogens through a combination of receptor-mediated responses. Time is an important variable that is often overlooked in many clinical and biological studies, including in relation to macrophages and UTIs. Given that ageing is a significant factor in urinary tract infection pathogenesis and macrophages have been shown to harbor their own circadian system, this review also explores the influence of age on macrophage functions and the role of diurnal variations in macrophage functions in host defense and inflammation during UTIs. We provide a conceptual framework for future studies that address these key knowledge gaps.

Solar-driven interfacial evaporation technologies for food, energy and water

Solar-driven interfacial evaporation technologies use solar energy to heat materials that drive water evaporation. These technologies are versatile and do not require electricity, which enables their potential application across the food, energy and water nexus. In this Review, we assess the potential of solar-driven interfacial evaporation technologies in food, energy and clean-water production, in wastewater treatment, and in resource recovery. Interfacial evaporation technologies can produce up to 5.3 l m–2 h−1 of drinking water using sunlight as the energy source. Systems designed for food production in coastal regions desalinate water to irrigate crops or wash contaminated soils. Technologies are being developed to simultaneously produce both clean energy and water through interfacial evaporation and have reached up to 204 W m–2 for electricity and 2.5 l m–2 h–1 for water in separate systems. Other solar evaporation approaches or combinations of approaches could potentially use the full solar spectrum to generate multiple products (such as water, food, electricity, heating or cooling, and/or fuels). In the future, solar evaporation technologies could aid in food, energy and water provision in low-resource or rural settings that lack reliable access to these essentials, but the systems must first undergo rigorous, scaled-up field testing to understand their performance, stability and competitiveness.

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