Scientists create first ‘mini-kidneys’ from human stem cells
A team of researchers from the Center of Regenerative Medicine in Barcelona, the Salk Institute in California and Hospital Clínic are moving towards regenerative medicine for kidney diseases.
By Biocat
A team of researchers from the Center of Regenerative Medicine in Barcelona (CMRB), the Salk Institute in California and Hospital Clínic–Idibaps have created three-dimensional kidney structures in culture using embryonic stem cells and iPS cells, a milestone that had not been reached by any other laboratory in the world. Japanese and Austrian scientists also recently announced the creation of hepatic and brain primordium from stem cells.
"Not only is it the first time that we have been able to create renal tissues in culture, but also that our studies have enabled the formation of three-dimensional structures typical of human organs,” explains the lead author of the work published in the journal Nature Cell Biology, Ignacio Sancho-Martínez, postdoctoral researcher at the Salk Institute.
The renal tissue obtained will be made available to the scientific community for research into the development of human kidneys, the causes of kidney diseases and to test drugs in culture. "This research gives us hope that one day we will be able to use our own cells to regenerate diseased organs, thus solving the shortage of organs for transplant,” explains Dr. Juan Carlos Izpisúa, director of the CMRB and leader of the international group that has worked on this research. The CMRB, located in the Barcelona Biomedical Research Park, is a global benchmark in the generation of iPS cells for modeling genetic diseases in vitro.
The high incidence of kidney diseases is a serious public health problem. The kidney is an organ with a very limited ability for self-repair, making it important to better understand its development and physiology. Moreover, the kidney has a highly complex three-dimensional structure involving many types of cells.
Previously, no one had been able to generate kidney cells in culture and that led to a bottleneck in research into kidney diseases. This new study, which has described the creation of mini renal collection systems, boosts the field of kidney regeneration and is another step towards creating kidneys from stem cells. The study has received funding from the Private Foundation Cellex, La Marató de TV3 Foundation, CIBER-BBN and the Ministry of Economy and Competiveness.
More information is available on the CMRB website.