Generating Kidney Organoids from Human Pluripotent Stem Cells Using Defined Conditions

The ultimate goal of regenerative medicine is to have access to an unlimited supply of specific cell types on demand, which can be used as effective therapies for a wide range of intractable disorders. With the availability of human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs) and greatly improved protocols for their directed differentiation into specific cell types, including kidney, this prospect could soon become a reality. We have previously described the generation of kidney organoids from hPSCs. This chapter describes our latest differentiation protocol for generating kidney tissue, which uses a cost-effective and completely defined, xeno-free medium. As with our previous protocol, these complex, multicellular three-dimensional structures are composed of all anticipated kidney cell types including nephrons segmented into the glomerulus, proximal and distal tubule as well as an extensive endothelial network, and renal interstitium. As such, kidney organoids provide useful tools for understanding human development, disease modeling, drug screening/toxicology studies and tissue engineering applications, and may facilitate the development of transplantable hPSC-derived kidney tissue for regenerative medicine purposes in the future.