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Understanding kidney morphogenesis to guide renal tissue regeneration
Melissa H Little1,2, Alexander N Combes1,3, Minoru Takasato1
1Murdoch Childrens Research Institute, Royal Children's Hospital, 50 Flemington Rd, Parkville, Melbourne, 3052, Australia.
Nature Reviews. Nephrology
|August 31, 2016
Summary
Regenerative medicine offers new hope for kidney failure. Scientists are now recreating human kidney tissues from stem cells, paving the way for future bioengineered organs and personalized treatments for end-stage renal disease.
Area of Science:
- Regenerative Medicine
- Developmental Biology
- Nephrology
Background:
- Renal replacement therapy for end-stage renal disease (ESRD) has seen minimal advancement in 70 years.
- A growing organ donor shortage necessitates alternative treatments for ESRD patients.
- Regenerative medicine holds promise for novel kidney disease therapies.
Purpose of the Study:
- To review key decision points in kidney development.
- To explain how these developmental processes can be mimicked experimentally.
- To highlight recent advances in generating human kidney cell types from pluripotent stem cells.
Main Methods:
- Studying mammalian embryogenesis to understand kidney patterning.
- Directed differentiation of human pluripotent stem cells.
- Recreating self-organizing kidney tissues in vitro.
Main Results:
- Understanding embryonic kidney development enables in vitro tissue recreation.
- Human nephrons can be generated from human pluripotent stem cells.
- These advancements facilitate patient-derived disease models and drug screening.
Conclusions:
- Mimicking kidney development offers a path towards new treatments for renal failure.
- Patient-derived kidney models enable personalized medicine approaches.
- The long-term goal is the generation of bioengineered kidneys for transplantation.
