Scientists use stem cells to create functioning laboratory-grown kidneys
For the first time, scientists have created primitive human kidneys in a laboratory dish by using stem cells.
The researchers hope this achievement will lead to new ways to treat individuals suffering from kidney failure. Pharmaceutical companies may also use the laboratory tissues to test new drugs.
“It’s really exciting,” says Melissa Little, who led the research and heads the Kidney Research Laboratory at the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute in Australia, in a series of statements reported by NPR. “I think this is a really big advance.”
Kidneys perform essential bodily functions. They filter toxins through the blood and regulate blood pressure and bone density. Kidneys can fail for various reasons, including poisoning, infections, and other diseases.
“The problem is that if something goes wrong with your kidneys, there are only two options and these have been the same for 50 years: You either have a transplant or go onto dialysis,” says Little. “So we really need alternative options.”
Little and other researchers have spent years attempting to grow kidneys in the lab using cells known as induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells.
Scientists have used iPS cells to create many types of human cells, but using them to create a kidney has proved difficult. The right combination of chemical signals is necessary to trigger iPS cells into making the various tissues making up a kidney.
“It’s like a recipe,” says Little. “We put different concentrations and types of growth factors in a certain order into the dish. And then when it gets to a certain size we take all the cells and make it into a ball.”
Cell communication eventually allows the appropriate shape to form. The team was able to create some key structures of a kidney, including nephrons, which are crucial in filtering toxins from the blood and producing urine.
The small kidney “organoids” detailed in the study are much like the kidney of a fetus. While not advanced enough to complete all the complex tasks required of an adult kidney, the researchers hope this study will lead to the creation of fully functioning kidneys in the future.
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