Polycystic kidney disease (Polycystic Kidney Disease) is a genetic disorder that causes the formation of many cysts in the kidneys. They are most often caused by defects in polycystine proteins. This disease affects 12 million people worldwide, or 5% of all people who need dialysis treatment or a kidney transplant. Until recently, scientists have been unable to recreate the progression of this human disease in a laboratory setting. This scientific obstacle has now been overcome.
A miniature kidney to study the development of the disease
By creating and manipulating kidney organoids, made from human stem cells that reflect realistic microanatomy, researchers at the University of Washington School of Medicine in the United States can now follow the early stages of the disease. sickness. Their study is published in the journal Nature Materials.
“Previously, we had shown that these organoids could form PRM-like cysts, but what’s new here is that we used this model to understand something fundamental about this disease, ”said Freedman, one of the study’s authors. They found that polycystine proteins, which cause disease, are sensitive to their microenvironment, so the new strategy is to see if it is possible to change the way they interact outside the cell. , by replacing certain physical components in the environment of the mini kidney, cyst formation can be increased or decreased.
“We have to understand how MPR works,” Freedman said. “Otherwise, we have no hope of curing the disease. And our research tells us that looking at the outside environment of the kidney may be the key to curing the disease. It gives us a whole new window of intervention.”
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