Toxicity Testing Using Organoids Made from Human-Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells Engineered to Report Oxidative Stress

This article describes the engineering of human induced pluripotent stem cells to report a cellular response to oxidative stress, which is a common (but not universal) result of cells being exposed to a toxicant. It then describes the use of these cells to generate renal organoids that will report oxidative stress, and the use of these organoids to screen a panel of compounds for nephrotoxicity. This application is intended as an illustration; in principle, other organoids could be made from these cells, and other cell lines could be made to report different common markers of cellular stress (for example, the release of pro-inflammatory signals).