iPS cell technology: Future impact on renal care

iPS cells from patients with kidney disease are a new tool with the potential to impact the future of renal care. They can be used in the laboratory to model the pathophysiology of human kidney disease, and have the potential to establish a new area of immunocompatible, on-demand renal transplantation. Critical challenges remain before the full potential of these cells can be accurately assessed. We need to understand whether the derived cell types are mature and can replace kidney function(s). To what extent can iPS cells model kidney disease in the simplified environment of cell culture? Ultimately, successful integration of these cells as autograft therapies will require demonstration of safety and efficacy equal or superior to the existing gold standards of kidney allograft transplantation and dialysis. Specific educational and infrastructural changes will be necessary if these specialized technologies are to be adopted as an accepted modalities in clinical medicine. Given these barriers, the first fruit of these labors is likely to be improved understanding of pathophysiological pathways in human IPS cell disease models, followed by drug discovery and testing. These experiments will lead naturally to improvements in differentiation and experiments in animal models testing function. The time course to achieve the desired goals remains unknown, but the ultimate hope is that new, more effective and less expensive modalities for renal replacement therapy will occur in the foreseeable future. A new standard of care for patients is anticipated that addresses limitations of currently available treatments.