A Novel, Low-Volume Method for Organ Culture of Embryonic Kidneys That Allows Development of Cortico-Medullary Anatomical Organization

Here, we present a novel method for culturing kidneys in low volumes of medium that offers more organotypic development compared to conventional methods. Organ culture is a powerful technique for studying renal development. It recapitulates many aspects of early development very well, but the established techniques have some disadvantages: in particular, they require relatively large volumes (1–3 mls) of culture medium, which can make high-throughput screens expensive, they require porous (filter) substrates which are difficult to modify chemically, and the organs produced do not achieve good cortico-medullary zonation. Here, we present a technique of growing kidney rudiments in very low volumes of medium–around 85 microliters–using silicone chambers. In this system, kidneys grow directly on glass, grow larger than in conventional culture and develop a clear anatomical cortico-medullary zonation with extended loops of Henle

Engineering kidneys from simple cell suspensions:an exercise in self-organization

Increasing numbers of people approaching and living with end-stage renal disease and failure of the supply of transplantable kidneys to keep pace has created an urgent need for alternative sources of new organs. One possibility is tissue engineering of new organs from stem cells. Adult kidneys are arguably too large and anatomically complex for direct construction, but engineering immature kidneys, transplanting them, and allowing them to mature within the host may be more feasible. In this review, we describe a technique that begins with a suspension of renogenic stem cells and promotes these cells’ self-organization into organ rudiments very similar to foetal kidneys, with a collecting duct tree, nephrons, corticomedullary zonation and extended loops of Henle. The engineered rudiments vascularize when transplanted to appropriate vessel-rich sites in bird eggs or adult animals, and show preliminary evidence for physiological function. We hope that this approach might one day be the basis of a clinically useful technique for renal replacement therapy

Experimental tubulogenesis induction model in the mouse

Abstract Kidney development and induction of tubulogenesis have been studied for almost seven decades. The experimental setup of metanephric mesenchyme induction ex vivo allows to control the environment, to perform cellular manipulations, and to learn about renal development. Since the establishment of the ex vivo kidney culture technique in 1953, the method was modified to suit well the progress in biological and medical fields and still today present many advantages over the traditional in vivo studies

The generation of kidney organoids by differentiation of human pluripotent cells to ureteric bud progenitor-like cells

International audienceThis protocol presents recently developed methodologies for the differentiation of human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs) into ureteric bud (UB) progenitor-like cells. Differentiation of human PSCs to UB progenitor-like cells allows for the generation of chimeric kidney cultures in which the human cells can self-assemble into chimeric 3D structures in combination with embryonic mouse kidney cells over a period of 18 d. UB progenitor-like cells are generated by a two-step process that combines in vitro commitment of human PSCs, whether embryonic stem cells (ESCs) or induced PSCs (iPSCs), under chemically defined culture conditions, with ex vivo cultures for the induction of 3D organogenesis. The models described here provide new opportunities for investigating human kidney development, modeling disease, evaluating regenerative medicine strategies, as well as for toxicology studies