A perspective on growing kidneys from stem cells

Growing complex organs such as kidneys from stem cells is not easy, and neither is putting an advance in perspective without hype

After seeing several headlines in my newsfeed about a “first” lab-grown kidney, and having written about a couple prior lab-grown kidneys, I was pleased to come across this NatureWorldNews article that put the latest advance into perspective.

First off, none of the now four teams have produced a functioning, full-size kidney. They have produced some pretty incredible first steps that resulted in complex components of kidneys that, in some cases, seem to filter like a kidney. The latest group, from the University of Queensland in Australia, published their work in Nature Cell Biology. They noted that a key to their success was their efforts to understand which genes are turned on and off and when in normal kidney development in the embryo.

This was similar to efforts by a CIRM-funded team at the Salk Institute. We wrote about that group’s work creating kidney buds from stem cells earlier this fall. NatureWorldNews noted this work as well as prior work by a team at Kyoto University. The news site provides links to this work as well as similar research trying to create complex lung and brain tissues.

All these projects are finding that given the right cues and the right three-dimensional environment stem cells have an amazing capacity to self-organize into complex structures.

The article quotes a member of the Queensland team, Brandon Wainwright, on the trend:

“The fact that such stem cell populations can undergo self-organization in the laboratory bodes well for the future of tissue bioengineering to replace damaged and diseased organs and tissues.”

The NatureWorldNews site had not been on my radar in the past, but for the science curious who want to have advances put into perspective and maybe dive a bit deeper, it is a great resource. In addition to the analysis, the site provides links to the journal articles as well as to basic information such as that on the National Institutes of Health’s stem cell information pages.

Don Gibbons