Human pluripotent stem cell-derived kidney organoids: Current progress and challenges

Human pluripotent stem cell (hPSC)-derived kidney organoids share similarities with the fetal kidney. However, the current hPSC-derived kidney organoids have some limitations, including the inability to perform nephrogenesis and lack of a corticomedullary definition, uniform vascular system, and coordinated exit pathway for urinary filtrate. Therefore, further studies are required to produce hPSC-derived kidney organoids that accurately mimic human kidneys to facilitate research on kidney development, regeneration, disease modeling, and drug screening. In this review, we discussed recent advances in the generation of hPSC-derived kidney organoids, how these organoids contribute to the understanding of human kidney development and research in disease modeling. Additionally, the limitations, future research focus, and applications of hPSC-derived kidney organoids were highlighted.

Core Tip: Pluripotent stem cells (PSCs) are a class of cells with self-renewal and multidirectional differentiation potential, and organoids are a group of tissue analogues induced to form three-dimensional (3D) structures that are structurally and functionally very similar to human organs under specific differentiation conditions. We review research progress on how renal organoid induction protocols can well mimic the human foetal model of renal development and disease. The discovery of human PSCs, and the recent 3D organoid generation methods have opened avenues for in vitro mimicry of human kidney development, disease research, and testing of new drugs directly on human tissue.

• Citation: Long HY, Qian ZP, Lan Q, Xu YJ, Da JJ, Yu FX, Zha Y. Human pluripotent stem cell-derived kidney organoids: Current progress and challenges. World J Stem Cells 2024; 16(2): 114-125
• URL: https://www.wjgnet.com/1948-0210/full/v16/i2/114.htm
• DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.4252/wjsc.v16.i2.114