Directed differentiation of human induced pluripotent stem cells into mature kidney podocytes and establishment of a Glomerulus Chip

With the use of laminin 511 coating, the authors have developed a detailed protocol for the directed differentiation of human iPS cells into mature, post-mitotic kidney glomerular podocytes with high (>90%) efficiency within 26 d and under chemically defined conditions, without genetic manipulations or subpopulation selection. They also describe how these iPS cell-derived podocytes may be induced to form within a microfluidic organ-on-a-chip culture device to build a human kidney Glomerulus Chip that mimics the structure and function of the kidney glomerular capillary wall in vitro.