Cloning and transplantation of adult renal tubular progenitors

Kidney damage involves the progressive and inexorable destruction of tubular and glomerular system. However, it is known that the patients survive AKI often recover renal structure and function. Correspondingly, previous studies demonstrated tubular regeneration in mice after massive kidney injury and linked mouse Sox9+ renal progenitor cells to this process. Here we show that progenitor cells can be cloned from mouse medulla and cortex. Clones can be grown from a single cell and indefinitely passaged. Progenitor cells derived from renal medulla can readily assembly into “kidney organoids” expressing proximal/distal tubular cell markers in 3D culture. Tissue sample of mouse cortex and medulla, progenitor cells derived from mouse cortex and medulla, and organoids derived from mouse cortex and medulla were characterized by microarrays to study their gene expression profiles. Duplicate experiments were taken from 2 biological samples.