The "3Ds" of Growing Kidney Organoids: Advances in Nephron Development, Disease Modeling, and Drug Screening

Brooke E Chambers; Nicole E Weaver; Rebecca A Wingert

doi:10.3390/cells12040549

The "3Ds" of Growing Kidney Organoids: Advances in Nephron Development, Disease Modeling, and Drug Screening

Cells. 2023 Feb 8;12(4):549. doi: 10.3390/cells12040549.

Authors

Brooke E Chambers¹, Nicole E Weaver¹, Rebecca A Wingert¹

Affiliation

¹ Department of Biological Sciences, Center for Stem Cells and Regenerative Medicine, Center for Zebrafish Research, Boler-Parseghian Center for Rare and Neglected Diseases, Warren Center for Drug Discovery, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN 46556, USA.

Abstract

A kidney organoid is a three-dimensional (3D) cellular aggregate grown from stem cells in vitro that undergoes self-organization, recapitulating aspects of normal renal development to produce nephron structures that resemble the native kidney organ. These miniature kidney-like structures can also be derived from primary patient cells and thus provide simplified context to observe how mutations in kidney-disease-associated genes affect organogenesis and physiological function. In the past several years, advances in kidney organoid technologies have achieved the formation of renal organoids with enhanced numbers of specialized cell types, less heterogeneity, and more architectural complexity. Microfluidic bioreactor culture devices, single-cell transcriptomics, and bioinformatic analyses have accelerated the development of more sophisticated renal organoids and tailored them to become increasingly amenable to high-throughput experimentation. However, many significant challenges remain in realizing the use of kidney organoids for renal replacement therapies. This review presents an overview of the renal organoid field and selected highlights of recent cutting-edge kidney organoid research with a focus on embryonic development, modeling renal disease, and personalized drug screening.

Keywords: kidney; nephron; nephron progenitor; organoid; stem cell; zebrafish.

Publication types

Review
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Drug Evaluation, Preclinical
Humans
Kidney* / metabolism
Nephrons* / metabolism
Organogenesis
Organoids / metabolism

Grants and funding

This research was funded by Start-Up funds from the University of Notre Dame College of Science to R.A.W., an Arthur J. Schmitt Graduate Research Fellowship to N.E.W., and Elizabeth and Michael Gallagher for their generous gift to the University of Notre Dame to support stem cell research. The funders had no role in the study design, data collection, analysis, the decision to publish, or manuscript preparation.