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Recapitulating kidney development: Progress and challenges

Melissa H Little1, Santhosh V Kumar2, Thomas Forbes3

  • 1Murdoch Children's Research Institute, Flemington Rd, Parkville, Victoria 3052, Australia; Department of Paediatrics, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria 3010, Australia; Department of Anatomy and Neuroscience, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria 3010, Australia.

Seminars in Cell & Developmental Biology
|September 6, 2018
PubMed

Insights

Advances in stem cell technology offer hope for kidney regeneration and disease modeling. Researchers are exploring cell sources and differentiation methods to create functional kidney tissues for therapeutic applications and drug screening.

Area of Science:

  • Regenerative Medicine
  • Developmental Biology
  • Nephrology

Background:

  • Decades of research in rodent models have detailed kidney development.
  • Stem cell advancements enable reprogramming and differentiation towards kidney cell types.

Purpose of the Study:

  • Review current cell sources for kidney regeneration.
  • Evaluate the accuracy of stem-cell derived kidney models.
  • Assess readiness for therapeutic applications and tissue engineering.

Main Methods:

  • Review of existing literature on kidney morphogenesis and stem cell differentiation.
  • Analysis of cell sources for potential therapeutic use.
  • Evaluation of human kidney models for disease and drug screening.

Main Results:

  • Rodent models provide a foundational understanding of kidney development.
  • Human pluripotent stem cells can be differentiated into kidney cell types.
  • Current models show promise but require further refinement for accuracy.

Conclusions:

  • Cellular therapy and tissue engineering for kidney repair are increasingly feasible.
  • Stem-cell derived kidney models offer potential for disease modeling and drug discovery.
  • Further research is needed to bridge the gap towards clinical application.
Keywords:
Directed differentiationHuman nephron progenitorKidney developmentKidney organoidPluripotent stem cellTransdifferentiation

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