Human Kidney Cells Engineered

Human kidney cells have been engineered from human embryonic stem cells by researchers. Engineered human kidney cells could have applications in regenerative medicine, toxicology and modelling diseases.

Researchers from the Institute of Bioengineering and Nanotechnology (IBN) have successfully generated the renal cells under artificial conditions in the lab.

About Stem Cells
Encyclopedia section of medindia gives general info about Stem Cells

"In particular, we are interested in applying our technology to develop predictive in vitro drug testing and renal toxicity models as alternatives to animal testing," Jackie Y. Ying, executive director of IBN, was quoted as saying in a statement from the institute.

IBN team leader and principal research scientist Daniele Zink said: "The kidney is a major target organ for drug-induced toxic effects. Therefore, it is important for pharmaceutical companies to find out early in the development phase whether their drugs would cause nephrotoxicity in humans."

At present, human kidney cells are extracted directly from human kidney samples. However, this method is not efficient because such samples are limited, and the extracted cells die after a few cell divisions in the petri dish.

Quiz on Kidney
The kidneys are two bean-shaped organs, each about the size of a fist, and are located just below the rib cage, one on each side of your spine.

Healthy kidneys filter about half a cup of blood every minute, removing wastes and extra water to make urine. The urine flows from the kidneys to the bladder through two thin tubes of muscle called ureters, one on each side of your bladder. The bladder stores urine. The kidneys, ureters, and bladder are partof the urinary tract.

Pyeloplasty of Kidney
Animation showing Pyeloplasty surgical operation to relieve obstruction of the pelvi-ureteric junction of the kidney.

kidneys remove wastes and extra fluid from your body. Kidneys also remove acid that is produced by the cells of your body and maintain a healthy balance of water, salts, and minerals-such as sodium, calcium, phosphorus and potassium-in your blood ().

Without this balance, nerves, muscles, and other tissues in the body may not work normally.

Kidney Diseases may be Cured by Patients' Own Kidney Cells
It is reported that scientists have found that patients' own kidney cells can be reprogrammed and used as a therapy against kidney disease.

Kidneys also make hormones that help

Control your blood pressure
Make red blood cells
Keep your bones strong and healthy

An alternative approach is to use human renal cell lines that have been rendered immortal, that is, they can be reproduced indefinitely in the lab. However, such cells may not be used in many applications due to safety issues.

The IBN technique, on the other hand, enables human embryonic stem cells to differentiate into renal proximal tubular-like cells. This particular kidney cell type plays an important role in kidney disease-related processes and drug clearance.

Results showed that the IBN lab generated cells were similar to the renal proximal tubular cells isolated from fresh human kidney samples. For example, they displayed very similar gene and protein expression patterns.

"We are also planning to modify our protocol in order to generate other renal cell types from stem cells," said Karthikeyan Narayanan, senior research scientist from IBN.

Source-IANS