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DISEASE MODELS

Accelerating maturation of kidney organoids

Nature Materials volume 18, pages 303–304 (2019)Cite this article

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A two-step method has been developed for the accelerated and efficient generation of human kidney organoids using in vitro and in ovo culture in a three-dimensional environment.

The kidney is primarily responsible for ensuring that the internal fluid volume and osmolality are regulated. This is achieved via a feedback mechanism that adjusts the solute and pH of the blood to maintain homeostasis. In addition, the kidney also regulates the secretion of water-soluble waste products. There has been a significant interest recently in the generation of in vitro tissue models to study organogenesis as well as disease progression, particularly for the kidney. Embryonic stem cells (ESCs) and induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) have emerged as important cells for the generation of organoids. Indeed, studies have shown the ability of human pluripotent stem cells to self-organize in vitro into kidney organoids that contain structures that morphologically resemble nephrons — the functional units of the kidney responsible for filtration and absorption1,2,3. In the latest study by Nuria Montserrat and colleagues4 in Nature Materials, they report on a method that enables faster and more efficient maturation of human kidney organoids derived from human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs).

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Fig. 1: Schematic of the derivation of kidney organoids from human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs).

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  1. Department of Anatomy and Embryology, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, the Netherlands

    Susana M. Chuva de Sousa Lopes

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  1. Susana M. Chuva de Sousa Lopes
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Correspondence to Susana M. Chuva de Sousa Lopes.

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Chuva de Sousa Lopes, S.M. Accelerating maturation of kidney organoids. Nat. Mater. 18, 303–304 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41563-019-0326-3

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