Regenerated stem cells were recently used by scientists to grow primitive human kidney tissues in a laboratory in Australia, a new study revealed. The tissues cannot perform the same functions that organs do, but can be used for future transplants and other applications.

"The problem is that if something goes wrong with your kidneys, there are only two options and these have been the same for 50 years: You either have a transplant or go onto dialysis," explained Melissa Little, lead researcher from the Kidney Research Laboratory at the Murdoch Children's Research Institute.

In a study published in the journal Nature, the scientists generated kidney organoids that contain nephrons and compared the result to human fetal tissues. Little said that these kidneys contain 10 or 12 different cell types in them, all from the one starting stem cell.

The kidney organoids were grown from induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells. These are adult cells that are reprogrammed into a neutral state from which they can be developed into other cell types.

When it was treated with known renal toxins, the kidney tissues were discovered to be damaged, scientists say.

The task is not easy. In order for the human-made tissues to function in a human recipient, the stem cells need to be prompted to turn into kidney, liver or lung cells, and then be recreated into a complex anatomy of a real organ.

The kidney tissues can someday replace lab animals in drug toxicity tests. They can also be used as a source of cells for therapy and also utilized for nephrotoxicity screening, and disease modeling. The kidney tissues can also possibly be looked into for research involving inherited forms of kidney disease.

University of Edinburgh anatomy expert Jamie Davies believes that the work is "an important step towards building stem-cell-derived kidneys."

"There is a long way to go until clinically useful transplantable kidneys can be engineered, but [this] protocol is a valuable step in the right direction," added Davies.

A few years ago, the most effective method to obtain stem cells was harvesting them from human embryos, but the controversial procedure required the embryo to be destroyed.

Scientists meanwhile hope that the study will soon pave way for the treatment of various diseases.

Photo : National Eye Institute | Flickr