Lab-grown human kidney has been considered as a breakthrough for medical researchers -- building new vital organs for patients in the lab. In Australia, scientists was able to develop “organoids” which are similar to the kidneys of a fetus in the first trimester of conception.

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The researchers used stem cells taken from human skin to create collecting ducts and “nephrons” (filtering units) – two primary parts that are present in kidneys. The balls of kidney tissue, measuring less than a centimeter across, also hold promise as sources of fresh kidney cells for medical treatments.

According to Nature International Weekly Journal of Science, regenerating the kidney requires the induction of the more than 20 distinct cell types required for excretion and the regulation of pH, and electrolyte and fluid balance. Scientists, Minoru Takasato and colleagues at the Royal Children's hospital in Melbourne describe how they have reprogrammed stem cells and turned them into the most developed human kidney ever created in a laboratory. "They spontaneously formed complex kidney organoids," they cited in the report.

Video showing the structures present within a mini-kidney scanning from the bottom of the organoid to the top.Credit: Minoru Takasato

They discovered that these lab-grown organoids contained not only collecting ducts and nephrons to filter blood, but also cells that form the connective tissue and blood vessels -- those that are normally seen around nephrons in fetuses.

Thus, it is also believed that laboratory-grown kidneys can be used for drug testing and potentially the bioengineering of replacement kidneys for patients with renal failure -- growing each from any person using cells such as skin or blood.

Widening horizons for cell therapy and other new treatments for renal diseases as well as giving researchers a chance to grow 'kidney models' to learn more about how the human kidney forms normally, this is then celebrated to be a breakthrough by modern science and the entire medical world.

Tagskidney from stem cell, lab-grown kidney, Minoru Takasato, kidney tissue, kidney organoids