The organoids also released some of the same hormones as true kidneys. And when implanted into mice, they readily connected to the rodents’ circulatory systems and began to filter blood. Like previous organoids, however, these structures made urine that was more dilute than normal because the organoids lack the structures that allow kidneys to concentrate the liquid, Li says.
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Still, the internal organization of an organoid produced with the new approach isn’t true to life. “You wouldn’t mistake it for a real kidney,” Davies says. “But it is trying to do the right things.” A big remaining challenge, Li notes, is plumbing—coaxing the organoids to develop the vessels that carry blood into and out of the kidney and to grow the duct that spirits the urine to the bladder. He and his colleagues predict they can solve these problems and have a transplantable kidney replacement ready for animal testing within 5 years.
From the article:
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