Lab grown kidneys go ‘rogue’, grow brain cells

London, Nov. 17: Miniature kidneys made using test tubes in a laboratory have gone “rogue”. While it was expected that they would grow into kidney cells, they developed into brain and muscle cells. The kidney organoids, initially coming from human stem cells. could have been eventually used to treat people with kidney diseases.

With the research going haywire, experts said the fact they behaved in this way indicates the technique used to grow them from stem cells is actually creating other cells.

“There’s a lot of enthusiasm for growing organoids as models for diseases that affect people. But scientists haven't fully appreciated that some of the cells that make up those organoids may not mimic what we would find in people. The good news is that with a simple intervention, we could block most of the rogue cells from growing. This should really accelerate our progress in making organoids better models for human kidney disease and drug discovery, and the same technique could be applied to targeting rogue cells in other organoids,” said Benjamin D. Humphreys, the director of the Division of Nephrology at the Washington University School of Medicine in St Louis.

"Developing kidney organoids is driven by the reality that we have so many patients with failing kidneys and no effective drugs to offer them.”

Dr Humphreys said between 10 per cent to 20 per cent of cells in the mini-kidneys missed cues to develop further into kidneys cells – instead becoming brains and muscle cells. When they pinpointed the stage this happened, they were able to reduce that quantity in research that could help other scientists eliminate these types of rogue cells in other experiments.

“Progress to develop better treatments for kidney disease is slow because we lack good models,” Dr Humphreys added.

“We rely on mice and rats, and they are not little humans. There are many examples of drugs that have done magically well at slowing or curing kidney disease in rodents but failed in clinical trials.

— Agencies

■ WITH RESEARCH going haywire, experts said the fact they behaved like this indicates the technique used to grow them from stem cells is actually creating other cells