"Creating organs out of stem cells has been a dream of humanity for a long time. The successful creation of retina cells, brain and liver fragments is an already known fact. But for the first time in the world we succeeded to recreate a structure amazingly matching to a real kidney structure," states the Okayama University.
During the experiment, scientists took stem cells of a rat kidney and added 5 types of protein. Three weeks later they recreated the structure of a nephron. Japanese scientists consider the experiment to be a first step towards kidney tissue recreation, and, if they are able to recreate the results using human stem cells, it may offer a cure for chronic kidney disease.
Japan has been a leader in the creation of organs using stem cells. Studies in this field reached new phase in 2012, when Japan's Professor Shinya Yamanaka won a Nobel Prize in 2006 for creating a stem cell out of human skin cells. These cells were later called induced pluripotent stem cells or iPSCs. Scientists have since used the new technology to create the cells of heart muscle, bowel, pancreas, retina, blood, skin, nerves, female egg and sperm.
