(A) Urinary cells from a healthy volunteer cultured for about 4 weeks display morphology of differentiated podocytes and (B) express podocyte-specific mRNAs detected in real-time RT-PCR (Rahmoune et al., 2005; Sakairi et al., 2009; Schmid et al., 2003). Amplified PCR products were resolved on 2% agarose gels and visualized with ethidium bromide. (C) Urinary podocytes were infected with AD8 for 3 h, extensively washed and cultured for the indicated times. Relative expression of ERT, LRT and 2-LTR circles (normalized against GAPDH) were compared by setting the level of ERT at 3 h post-infection to 100%. (D) Transient expression of HIV-1 Gag proteins in urinary podocytes coincides with a transient release of HIV-1 virions (pelletable p24) into culture medium. (E) Accumulation of truncated Env-EGFP fusion protein indicates replication of VSV-G pseudotyped NL4-3 ΔE-EGFP (Zhang et al., 2004) in urinary podocytes.