Open microfluidic coculture reveals paracrine signaling from human kidney epithelial cells promotes kidney specificity of endothelial cells.

Open microfluidic coculture reveals paracrine signaling from human kidney epithelial cells promotes kidney specificity of endothelial cells. Am J Physiol Renal Physiol. 2020 May 11;: Authors: Zhang T, Lih D, Nagao RJ, Xue J, Berthier E, Himmelfarb J, Zheng Y, Theberge AB Abstract Endothelial cells (ECs) from different human organs possess organ-specific characteristics that support specific tissue regeneration and organ development. EC specificity are identified by both intrinsic and extrinsic cues, among which, parenchyma and organ-specific microenvironment are critical contributors. These extrinsic cues are, however, largely lost during ex vivo cultures. Outstanding challenges remain to understand and re-establish EC organ-specificity for in vitro studies to recapitulate human organ-specific physiology. Here, we designed an open microfluidic platform to study the role of human kidney tubular epithelial cells in supporting EC specificity. The platform consists of two independent cell culture regions segregated with a half wall; culture media is added to connect the two culture regions at a desired timepoint, and signaling molecules can travel across the half wall (paracrine signaling). Specifically, we report that in the microscale coculture device, primary human kidney proximal tubular epithelial cells (HPTECs) rescued primary human kidney peritubular microvascular EC (HKMEC) monolayer integrity and fenestra formation, and HPTECs u...
Source: American Journal of Physiology. Renal Physiology - Category: Physiology Authors: Tags: Am J Physiol Renal Physiol Source Type: research