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Human induced pluripotent stem cell (hiPSC)-derived kidney organoids have been shown to have potential for developmental studies1,2,3,4, toxicity screening5,6, and disease modeling5,7,8,9,10,11,12,13. However, their applicability for these and eventual clinical transplantation purposes is limited by the lack of a vascular network. During embryonic kidney development, podocytes, mesangial cells, and vascular endothelial cells (ECs) interact to form the intricate structure of the glomerulus. Without this interaction, the glomerular filtration barrier, consisting of podocytes, the glomerular basement membrane (GBM), and ECs, cannot develop properly14,15,16. Although kidney organoids in vitro do contain some ECs, these fail to form a proper vascular network and diminish over time17. It is therefore not surprising that the organoids remain immature. Transplantation in mice induces vascularization and maturation of the kidney organoids18,19,20,21. Unfortunately, this is a labor-intensive process that is unsuitable for the analysis of large numbers of organoids.
Chicken embryos have been used to study vascularization and development for over a century22. They are easily accessible, require low maintenance, lack a fully functional immune system, and can develop normally after opening the eggshell23,24,25,26. The transplantation of organoids on their chorioallantoic membrane (CAM) has been shown to lead to vascularization27. However, the duration of transplantation on the CAM, as well as the level of maturation of the graft, are limited by CAM formation, which takes until embryonic day 7 to complete. Therefore, a method was recently developed to efficiently vascularize and mature kidney organoids through intracelomic transplantation in chicken embryos28. The celomic cavity of chicken embryos has been known since the 1930s to be a favorable environment for the differentiation of embryonic tissues29,30. It can be accessed early in embryonic development and allows for relatively unlimited expansion of the graft in all directions.
This paper outlines a protocol for the transplantation of hiPSC-derived kidney organoids in the celomic cavity of day 4 chicken embryos. This method induces vascularization and enhanced maturation of the organoids within 8 days. Injection of fluorescently labeled lens culinaris agglutinin (LCA) prior to sacrificing the embryos enables visualization of perfused blood vessels within the organoids through confocal microscopy.