One-Step Differentiation of Human-Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells into Podocytes

Within the glomerulus, podocytes are highly specialized visceral epithelial cells, that are part of the glomerular filtration barrier. Human podocyte cell culture is rather challenging for primary or immortalized cells, due to the non-proliferative state of the cells. In addition, de-differentiation is often observed rapidly. Hence, iPSC-derived podocytes offer an exciting alternative to culture podocyte-like cells from different donors over a prolonged time. Here we report an improved protocol of a simple and rapid one-step differentiation that drives iPSC into podocyte-like cells in 10 days and offers the possibility to transfer the podocyte-like cells into another plate format once.