Kidney organoids as models for hereditary kidney diseases: Toward precision medicine (Review)

Abstract

Kidney organoids are important tools for modeling human development and disease, especially in chronic kidney disease (CKD), which is a global health challenge. Current treatment strategies focus on delaying disease progression by managing underlying causes, and in this regard, kidney organoids offer a platform for mechanism-based therapeutics. Advances in the understanding of human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) and sophisticated 3D organ culture methods have enabled researchers to replicate human kidney development and disease mechanisms in vitro, thereby opening new avenues for drug testing. Although the methods for generating renal cell lineages are well established, new protocols for inducing lineages, such as the ureteric bud and collecting ducts, have emerged over the past 5 years. Patient-derived or genetically edited kidney organoids have been used to successfully model various genetic kidney diseases, notably polycystic kidney disease, and to generate kidney tissues that closely mimic the morphology of real organs. However, achieving more complex disease modeling and generating transplantable synthetic kidneys still has notable challenges. The present review discusses the application of hiPSC-derived 3D organoids in CKD research and addresses the limitations of current organ culture methods. The present review also examines the impact of CRISPR/Cas9 technology, and investigates potential future directions.