Thiol-ene cross-linked alginate hydrogel encapsulation modulates the extracellular matrix of kidney organoids by reducing abnormal type 1a1 collagen deposition

Kidney organoids: current knowledge and future directions

“…Interestingly, no morphological changes in the renal structures were observed. The results of this study showed that encapsulation of kidney organoids into a soft biomaterial could modulate the organoids' ECM composition and more closely mimic the in vivo microenvironment of the developing kidney (Geuens et al 2021).…”

“…RNA sequencing analysis showed that these organoids resembled the first trimester of fetal kidney tissue. Several studies utilized this protocol to conduct in vivo transplantations (Koning et al 2018), developmental research (Bantounas et al 2018), renal disease modeling (Forbes et al 2018;Howden et al 2018), scale-up of organoid generation (Kumar et al 2019), encapsulating kidney organoids (Geuens et al 2021), and bioprinting technology (Lawlor et al 2021) and to study the role of the renin-angiotensin system (Shankar et al 2021). Bonventre's laboratory created a protocol that generated NPCs with 75-92% efficiency in 9 days.…”

Enhanced microvasculature formation and patterning in iPSC–derived kidney organoids cultured in physiological hypoxia

“…However, in our organoids, HIF-2α nuclear translocation did not induce EPO mRNA transcription in either normoxia or hypoxia (Supplementary Figure 6). The fact that EPO was not transcribed in the organoids in normoxia and hypoxia could potentially be due to a fibrotic stromal population found in the organoids 33 and subsequent hyper-methylation of the EPO 5’ and HRE, inhibiting HIF2/HIFβ dimer binding, as found in adult fibrotic kidneys 49 . Future research could clarify mechanistically, if nuclear HIF-2α is actually leading to target gene transcriptions or if this is inhibited, consequently being one reason for limited organoid maturation.…”

“…The iPSC line was previously assessed for pluripotency and normal karyotype. 33 For differentiation, 80,000 cells per well were seeded into a six well plate and differentiated according to the published protocol in organoid culture medium composed of STEMdiff APEL2 medium (STEMCELL Technologies), supplemented with 1% antibiotic-antimycotic and 1% protein-free hybridoma medium II (PFHM 2) (Thermo Fisher Scientific) and the respective growth factors and small molecules (8 µM GSK-3 inhibitor CHIR99021 (R&D Systems), 200 ng/mL FGF9 (fibroblast growth factor 9; R&D Systems), and 1 μg/mL heparin (Sigma-Aldrich)). After 7 days of differentiation, the cells were aggregated by centrifugation and spotted on transwell tissue culture plates with 0.4 μm pore polyester membrane inserts (Corning) and cultured at an air–liquid interface.…”

Advances of Engineered Hydrogel Organoids within the Stem Cell Field: A Systematic Review

“…To date, a number of studies have reported that stem-cell-derived organoids using hydrogels could simulate many different types of tissues and organs, including the intestine [ 13 , 14 , 15 ], brain [ 16 , 17 , 18 ], retina [ 19 , 20 ], cardiac tissues [ 21 , 22 , 23 ], kidney [ 24 , 25 , 26 ], lung [ 27 , 28 ], various oral tissues with (tooth germ organoids [ 29 ], lingual epithelium organoids [ 30 ], salivary gland [ 31 ] and taste bud organoids [ 32 ]), liver [ 33 , 34 ], cartilage [ 35 ], and vascular tissues [ 17 ]. The most commonly used hydrogel is Matrigel, which plays a key role in 3D culture organoid technology due to it being enriched in various growth factors and extracellular matrix components (such as laminin, type 4 collagen, growth factors, etc.).…”