iPS細胞を用いた三次元の腎臓組織再生の現状と機能再建に向けた課題

抄録

Kidney develops from the three types of precursors, including nephron progenitors, ureteric bud and stromal progenitors. Mutual interaction of these progenitors enables concomitant differentiation and maintenance of nephron progenitors, thereby enabling the development of well-organized kidney structure with sufficient number of nephrons. Recently we established the way to selectively induce nephron progenitors from pluripotent stem cells, which showed the first evidence of reconstructing 3-dimensional nephron structure, including both glomerular podocytes and nephric tubules. However, it remains to be elucidated how the ureteric bud and stromal progenitor lineages are induced and reconstructed into the kidney organoid that equips organotypic architecture. Here we review the current situation of kidney reconstruction from pluripotent stem cells and discuss the limitations to overcome to achieve the physiological functions.