Profiling human kidney organoids

Single-cell analyses reveal fidelity to human kidney development, providing further support for organoid models

Single-cell analysis reveals congruence between kidney organoids and human fetal kidney

Alexander N. Combes†Email author,
Luke Zappia†,
Pei Xuan Er,
Alicia Oshlack and
Melissa H. LittleEmail author View ORCID ID profile

†Contributed equally

Genome Medicine201911:3

https://doi.org/10.1186/s13073-019-0615-0

Received: 24 September 2018
Accepted: 14 January 2019
Published: 23 January 2019

Abstract

Background

Human kidney organoids hold promise for studying development, disease modelling and drug screening. However, the utility of stem cell-derived kidney tissues will depend on how faithfully these replicate normal fetal development at the level of cellular identity and complexity.

Methods

Here, we present an integrated analysis of single cell datasets from human kidney organoids and human fetal kidney to assess similarities and differences between the component cell types.

Results

Clusters in the combined dataset contained cells from both organoid and fetal kidney with transcriptional congruence for key stromal, endothelial and nephron cell type-specific markers. Organoid enriched neural, glial and muscle progenitor populations were also evident. Major transcriptional differences between organoid and human tissue were likely related to technical artefacts. Cell type-specific comparisons revealed differences in stromal, endothelial and nephron progenitor cell types including expression of WNT2B in the human fetal kidney stroma.

Conclusions

This study supports the fidelity of kidney organoids as models of the developing kidney and affirms their potential in disease modelling and drug screening.