Abstract:

Kidney diseases and diabetes cause both medical and medicoeconomical problems worldwide. Kidney, whole pancreas and pancreatic islet transplantations are an effective therapeutic strategy, but the insufficient donor organ/tissue supply is a major obstacle to these interventions. Regenerative medicine strategies using human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) are among the candidate approaches to solve the problems. Based on the knowledge of developmental biology, we are establishing the stepwise differentiation methods for kidney and pancreatic lineage cells from human iPSCs and generating kidney and pancreatic tissues from the induced cells. We are also examining the therapeutic potential of kidney and pancreatic lineage cells generated from human iPSCs by using mouse models of renal diseases and diabetes. We demonstrated that the transplantation of human iPSC-derived renal progenitors and erythropoietin (EPO)-producing cells ameliorates acute kidney injury (AKI) and renal anemia in mice, respectively. We have also succeeded in lowing blood glucose levels in diabetic mice by transplanting human iPSC-derived pancreatic cells. Towards clinical trials, we are currently developing mass culture systems for transplantable cells and transplantation methods. In this presentation, I would like to summarize the current status of kidney and pancreatic regeneration researches including our results and discuss the future perspective of iPSC technology-based regenerative treatment of kidney diseases and diabetes.

References:

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