BioCentury
ARTICLE | Distillery Techniques

Assays and screens; drug properties

August 16, 2018 10:54 PM UTC

Human kidney cells cultured on decellularized rat kidney extracellular matrix (ECM) scaffolds could be used to screen compounds for nephrotoxicity. The method involved treating rat kidney tissue samples with detergent and DNAse to remove rat cells from the tissue without affecting its ECM architecture, then co-culturing the decellularized ECM scaffolds with human renal proximal tubule epithelial cell lines to allow colonization of the scaffolds with the human cells. A human renal proximal tubule epithelial cell line cultured on the kidney scaffold formed 3-D proximal tubule structures and expressed higher levels of epithelial markers including claudin 2 (CLDN2) and aquaporin-1 (AQP1) and renal transporters including solute carrier family 22 organic cation transporter member 2 (SLC22A2; OCT2) and SLC22A6 (OAT1) than the same cell line cultured under standard 2-D conditions. Also in the kidney scaffold cultures, the known nephrotoxic agents cisplatin and tenofovir decreased cell viability with EC50 values of 12 and 97 μM, respectively, whereas in the same cell line cultured under standard 2-D conditions, the agents decreased cell viability with EC50 values of 108 and 212 μM, respectively. Next steps could include using the culture system to screen additional compounds for nephrotoxicity...