Kidney stem cell project launched

An ambitious project is underway in Australia to define and isolate renal stem cells so that they can be used to either repair or regenerate a kidney.

The Renal Regeneration Consortium, which involves 13 labs at Queensland's Institute of Molecular Biosciences (IMB), Monash University, RMIT and Canberra Hospital, led by IMB researcher Assoc Prof Melissa Little and Monash's Prof John Bertram, is looking for the kidney stem cell, and figuring out what is needed to grow a kidney.

"Not much is known about stem cells in the kidney, but we expect there are some there. But how do we recognise them?" said John Bertram, who outlined the program to delegates at the recent National Stem Cell Centre conference.

"The holy grail of kidney developmental biology is what induces nephrogenesis -- what tells the mesenchymal cells to become nephrons, and what induces branching."

The researchers in the RRC have using gene expression profiling techniques to identify at least 170 unique secreted genes and proteins, out of about 2000 genes that are up- or down-regulated during the development of the kidney in mouse embryos. Later, they plan to look at the expression of the various genes in specific compartments or domains of the embryonic kidney. The next step will be to validate the involvement of the genes using techniques like RT-PCR and in situ hybridisation, before going on to look at function.

The researchers are also trying to drive the differentiation embryonic stem cells toward a renal fate, in the hope of identifying the factors important to the process.

Last year, the consortium was awarded AUD$4.2 million by the US NIH's National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK). The windfall added to a substantial $1 million grant from the Australian Kidney Foundation plus matching funds from Monash.

"We're bringing people together to work in kidney biology who've never worked in the kidney area before," Bertram said. "It's a novel approach for Australia."

The RRC has also established a spin-off, Nephrogenix, to take advantage of any research with commercial potential that may come out of the program.

With $1 billion spent on chronic renal disease in Australia alone, the potential market for therapeutics and stem cell derived products is likely to be significant.

Look for more articles from the National Stem Cell Centre conference in the Features section of this web site