Three Dimensional Modeling of Biologically Relevant Fluid Shear Stress in Human Renal Proximal Tubule Cells Mimics In Vivo Transcriptional Profiles

We performed RNA-sequencing of human RPTEC/TERT1 cells in a microfluidic chip-based 3D model to determine transcriptomic changes. We measured transcriptional changes following the treatment of cells in this device at three different fluidic shear stress. We observed that FSS changes the expression of proximal tubule cell (PTC)-specific genes and impacted genes previously associated with renal diseases in genome-wide association studies (GWAS). At a physiological FSS level, we observed cell morphology, enhanced polarization, presence of cilia, and transport functions using albumin reabsorption via endocytosis and efflux transport. Here, we present a dynamic view of human PTCs response to FSS with increasing fluidic shear stress conditions and provide insight into hPTCs cellular function under biologically relevant conditions. Examination of cells placed under flow rates treatments of 0.1dyn/cm2, 0.25 dyn/cm2, and a physiological level of 0.5 dyn/cm2