Generation of kidney tubular cells from human pluripotent stem cells

2016 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 25461231
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Kidney internal medicine
• Research Institution: Keio University
• Principal Investigator: Homma Koichiro 慶應義塾大学, 医学部(信濃町), 講師 (10383762)
• Research Collaborator: YAMAGUCHI Shintaro 慶應義塾大学, 医学部, 特任助教 (50464855)
• Project Period (FY): 2013-04-01 – 2017-03-31
• Keywords: ヒトES細胞 / 尿細管上皮細胞

Outline of Final Research Achievements

We report a simple two-step differentiation protocol to generate kidney tubular organoids from hPSCs with direct purification of KSP (kidney specific protein)-positive cells using anti-KSP antibody.
We first differentiated hPSCs into mesoderm cells using a glycogen synthase kinase-3β inhibitor for 3 days, then cultured cells in renal epithelial growth medium to induce KSP+ cells. We purified KSP+ cells using flow cytometry with anti-KSP antibody, which exhibited characteristics of all segments of kidney tubular cells and cultured KSP+ cells in 3D Matrigel, which formed tubular organoids in vitro. The formation of tubular organoids by KSP+ cells induced the acquisition of functional kidney tubules. KSP+ cells also allowed for the generation of chimeric kidney cultures in which human cells self-assembled into 3D tubular structures in combination with mouse embryonic kidney cells.

Free Research Field

腎臓内科学