Overview
- A peer-reviewed paper in Nature Biomedical Engineering reports a reproducible, high-throughput process that produces batches of roughly 30,000 human kidney organoids.
- Organoids were delivered into porcine kidneys using normothermic machine perfusion ex vivo, then the organs were autotransplanted with preserved renal function during 24–72 hours of monitoring.
- Human cells stayed integrated and active in the grafts without significant acute immune responses in the short term.
- The study covered seven kidneys and leaves key questions open on vascularization, long-term behavior, proliferation risk and possible cell dissemination, as outside experts note.
- Spain’s ONT is coordinating research at hospitals in A Coruña, Barcelona, Madrid and Cantabria using discarded human donor kidneys, with no near-term treatments planned for patients.