Stem cell breakthrough offers hope for treating kidney disease

There is new hope for individuals with kidney disease with a breakthrough by Australian scientists in the generation of induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS cells) from adult differentiated kidney cells.

The researchers from Monash and the CSIRO were able to regress adult kidney cells into an embryonic stem cell-like state, meaning they can then be differentiated into any cell type in the body.

However, the researchers believe these kidney-derived cells will be more likely to differentiate into kidney cells.

This gives them a practically unlimited supply of kidney cells derived from the iPS cells, allowing them to learn more about the kidney and kidney disease, as well as use these cells to test new drugs and treatments.

The team that made the cells was led by Associate Professor Sharon Ricardo of Monash University along with Professor Claude Bernard, Monash University, Dr Andrew Laslett, CSIRO and Dr Peter Kerr of the Monash Medical Centre.

“Initially the cells will be used to model and understand kidney disease,” said Dr Ricardo, “overcoming the current limitations to studying the disease in the laboratory and allowing us to understand kidney disease in a way we have never been able to before”.

“Creating iPS cells directly from kidney opens the door to the study of genetic kidney disease where the genetic code for the disease is present only in the kidney cells,” added Dr Laslett.

“This technology will allow us to compare the genetic differences between the kidney iPS cells and control iPS cells that do not carry the disease mutation thereby increasing understanding of both normal and disease development in the kidney”.

Currently the options for individuals with kidney disease are limited, and the development of iPS cells derived from kidney cells raises the hope of new treatments other than dialysis or transplantation.

The paper was published this week in the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology and will appear on the journal's cover.