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GENERAL INFORMATION World Journal of Nephrology(World J Nephrol,WJN,online ISSN2220-6124,DOI:10.5527)is a peer-reviewed open access(OA)academic journal that aims to guide clinical practice and improve diagnostic and therapeutic skills of clinicians.Aim and scope WJN covers topics concerning kidney development,renal regeneration,kidney tumors,therapy of renal disease,hemodialysis,perito-

Podocytes covering the glomerular basement mem-brane over the glomerular capillary consist of three morphologically and functionally different segments, the cell body, major processes and extending finger-like foot processes （FPs）. The FPs of neighboring podo-cytes are connected by a continuous adherent junction structure named the slit diaphragm （SD）. The extracel-lular SD is linked to the intracellular, a highly dynamic, cytoskeleton through adaptor proteins. These adaptor proteins, such as CD2-associated protein, zonula oc-cludens 1, β-catenin, Nck and p130Cas, located at the intracellular SD insertion area near lipid rafts, have important structural and functional roles. Adaptor pro-teins in podocytes play important roles as a structural component of the podocyte structure, linking the SD to the cytoskeletal structure and as a signaling platform sending signals from the SD to the actin cytoskeleton. This review discusses the roles of adaptor proteins in the podocyte cytoskeletal structure and signaling from the SD to the actin cytoskeleton.