Clean-up Crew

Your blood is filtered around 60 times a day to clear waste products. This is the job of filtering units in your kidneys called glomeruli, which are often damaged in kidney disease. Investigating glomeruli in the lab is challenging as current 2D models are too simplistic, while 3D models can't be easily scaled up for drug screening. Researchers now present a scalable 3D model, GlomSpheres, which are made using the extracellular matrix proteins, collagen IV and laminin, and the glomeruli cells, podocytes and glomerular endothelial cells (GEnCs). Fluorescence microscopy (pictured) revealed high levels of podocyte proteins (green) and GEnC proteins (red) were maintained in GlomSpheres, while electron microscopy revealed structures similar to those in kidneys. Incubating spheres with blood plasma from kidney disease patients caused podocyte loss, which was reduced by adding nintedanib, a drug used to treat kidney damage. GlomSpheres, therefore, hold promise as a model for kidney drug screening.

Written by Lux Fatimathas

Lux Fatimathas

Writer

Having pursued science through a career in research, communications and publishing, she is currently a writer and editor for a healthcare marketing agency and also juggles freelance science writing.

• Image from work by Jack Tuffin and colleagues
• Bristol Renal, Translational Health Sciences, Bristol Medical School, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK
• Image originally published with a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
• Published in Communications Biology, December 2021