Plasticity of distal nephron epithelia from human kidney organoids enables the induction of ureteric tip and stalk.

Plasticity of distal nephron epithelia from human kidney organoids enables the induction of ureteric tip and stalk. Cell Stem Cell. 2020 Dec 21;: Authors: Howden SE, Wilson SB, Groenewegen E, Starks L, Forbes TA, Tan KS, Vanslambrouck JM, Holloway EM, Chen YH, Jain S, Spence JR, Little MH Abstract During development, distinct progenitors contribute to the nephrons versus the ureteric epithelium of the kidney. Indeed, previous human pluripotent stem-cell-derived models of kidney tissue either contain nephrons or pattern specifically to the ureteric epithelium. By re-analyzing the transcriptional distinction between distal nephron and ureteric epithelium in human fetal kidney, we show here that, while existing nephron-containing kidney organoids contain distal nephron epithelium and no ureteric epithelium, this distal nephron segment alone displays significant in vitro plasticity and can adopt a ureteric epithelial tip identity when isolated and cultured in defined conditions. "Induced" ureteric epithelium cultures can be cryopreserved, serially passaged without loss of identity, and transitioned toward a collecting duct fate. Cultures harboring loss-of-function mutations in PKHD1 also recapitulate the cystic phenotype associated with autosomal recessive polycystic kidney disease. PMID: 33378647 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]
Source: Cell Stem Cell - Category: Stem Cells Authors: Tags: Cell Stem Cell Source Type: research