Scientists Grow Miniature Human Kidney From Skin Cells

A team of researchers in Melbourne have bioengineered kidney-like organs in laboratory from human skin cell.

Details of the new research have been published in the latest edition of Nature journal. It writes the successfully developed kidney-like structure is about 5 millimetres across in size.

The human kidney is of the size of grapefruit.

The new achievement could help in drug research and may also one day support those who are in need of kidney transplant.

According to researcher Melissa Little, the miniature organ was formed from stem cells derived from human skin cells.

Little is a professor at the University of Queensland. Her team made the organ in 18 days.

She added the making of miniature was just like cooking, but more time was taken to get the right ingredients while making it. Chemical signals were used to transform the stem cells into two types of cells, one filters blood and the other collect ducts by removing the waste.

The two types were brought together to grow and arrange into complex structure of a kidney.

As of now the miniature cannot be termed as organs as the organoids contains about 50 and 100 filters only where as the adult kidney contains more than a million filters.

Little said the aim for the research is to know whether an organ can be recreated and that could be able to treat to the patient suffering from kidney disease.