Innovations in preclinical biology: ex vivo engineering of a human kidney tissue microperfusion system

Abstract

Kidney disease is a public health problem that affects more than 20 million people in the US adult population, yet little is understood about the impact of kidney disease on drug disposition. Consequently there is a critical need to be able to model the human kidney and other organ systems, to improve our understanding of drug efficacy, safety, and toxicity, especially during drug development. The kidneys in general, and the proximal tubule specifically, play a central role in the elimination of xenobiotics. With recent advances in molecular investigation, considerable information has been gathered regarding the substrate profiles of the individual transporters expressed in the proximal tubule. However, we have little knowledge of how these transporters coupled with intracellular enzymes and influenced by metabolic pathways form an efficient secretory and reabsorptive mechanism in the renal tubule. Proximal tubular secretion and reabsorption of xenobiotics is critically dependent on interactions with peritubular capillaries and the interstitium. We plan to robustly model the human kidney tubule interstitium, utilizing an ex vivo three-dimensional modular microphysiological system with human kidney-derived cells. The microphysiological system should accurately reflect human physiology, be usable to predict renal handling of xenobiotics, and should assess mechanisms of kidney injury, and the biological response to injury, from endogenous and exogenous intoxicants.

Figure 1

Critical cell types in the in vivo environment of the kidney. Cartoon depiction of the spatial relationship of renal tubule epithelial cells, vessel endothelial cells and pericyte cells (PCs).

Figure 2

Device for microphysiological system generation of the in vivo environment of the kidney. (a) Dual-channel Nortis microphysiological device for ex vivo modeling of kidney function. (b) Culture of primary human renal epithelial cells in the Nortis device 14 days post seeding. Bar = 100 μM.