Departments of 1Pediatrics, 2Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, and

tained activation of MAPK/ERKs signaling pathway in cystic kidneys from bcl-2 / mice. Am J Physiol Renal Physiol 283: F1085–F1090, 2002. First published June 26, 2002; 10.1152/ajprenal.00380.2001.—Cell proliferation, survival, and differentiation are carefully orchestrated processes dur-ing nephrogenesis that become aberrant during renal cyst formation. Signaling through focal adhesion kinase (FAK) impacts these processes, although its role during nephrogen-esis requires further delineation. We previously demon-strated that phosphorylation of FAK and paxillin is not downregulated in cystic kidneys from B cell lymphoma/leu-kemia-2 (bcl-2) / mice. Here we examine whether FAK downstream signaling pathways are affected in these cystic kidneys. Cystic kidneys from bcl-2 / mice exhibited sus-tained phosphorylation of Src and mitogen-activated protei