Interesting Paper: Bioengineered Rat Kidney
Earlier this year an MIT/Harvard group generated and transplanted a rat kidney and published in Nature Medicine Technical Report.
“Regeneration and experimental orthotopic transplantation of a bioengineered kidney”
Jeremy J Song, Jacques P Guyette, Sarah E Gilpin, Gabriel Gonzalez, Joseph P Vacanti, & Harald C Ott
Center for Regenerative Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School
A rat kidney, sourced from a cadaveric rat, was decellularized with detergent then used as a scaffold for rat epithelial and endothelial cells. A bioengineered kidney was generated in a whole-organ bioreactor. The kidney was grafted orthotopically in rats and shown in vivo to to produce urine.
Of course, a working kidney was sacrificed to generate the ‘new’ kidney. The cells used to seed the kidney were taken from the graft recipient so rejection should not be an issue (or as much of an issue).
They also decellularized porcine and human kidneys.
From the paper’s discussion section…
“Translation of this technology beyond proof of principle will require the optimization of cell-seeding protocols to human-sized scaffolds and an upscaling of biomimetic organ culture, as well as the isolation, differentiation and expansion of the required cell types from clinically feasible sources.”
Porcine Kidney and Decellularized Porcine kidney
Decellularized rat kidney placed in bioreactor (see paper for details)
Decellularized rat kidney grafted into animal from which the cells were taken. Artery is clamped in this image.
Clamp removed and blood flows into new organ.
While the kidney did produce urine it did not do so very well. This is hardly surprising as the number of cell types in even a rat kidney is far greater then the two they used here. A good start but I think we still have time for our HD devices before bioengineered kidneys are available for renal replacement therapy.
