Applications of kidney organoids derived from human pluripotent stem cells

Abstract

The establishment of protocols to differentiate kidney organoids from human pluripotent stem cells provides potential applications of kidney organoids in regenerative medicine. Modeling of renal diseases, drug screening, nephrotoxicity testing of compounds, and regenerative therapy are attractive applications. Although much progress still remains to be made in the development of kidney organoids, recent advances in clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeat (CRISPR)-CRISPR-associated system 9 (Cas9) genome editing and three-dimensional bioprinting technologies have contributed to the application of kidney organoids in clinical fields. In this section, we review recent advances in the applications of kidney organoids to kidney disease modelling, drug screening, nephrotoxicity testing, and regenerative therapy.

Keywords: Clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats; Kidney; Organoids; Transplantation; Bioprinting.

Figure 1.

Schematic presentation of the clinical application of kidney organoids derived from human pluripotent stem cells. CRISPR, clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeat.

Figure 2.

Representative images immunohistochemical staining images (with human nuclear antibody [HNA]) after transplantation of kidney organoids derived from human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs) into kidney of nonobese diabetic/severe combined immunodeficiency (NOD-SCID) mouse. Scale bars, 0.1 mm. Transplanted kidney organoids derived from hPSCs grew with nephron-like structures and the cells in transplanted kidney organoids predominantly originated from the human inducible pluripotent stem cells. Black arrowheads indicate the glomerulus-like structure and white arrowheads indicate the tubule-like structure in transplanted graft.