EpiKidney 3D Microtissues | MatTek Life Sciences

EpiKidney™

EpiKidney is a ready-to-use, 3D organotypic model comprised of human primary proximal tubular epithelial cells. These cells are expanded and then seeded onto microporous membrane inserts. Grown at the air-liquid interface the cells differentiate into polarized epithelium expressing brush border proteins megalin, villin, and GGT1 together with water channel AQP1 on the apical side and sodium-potassium ATPase pump on the basolateral side. EpiKidney is a valuable tool for the predictivity of human responses to pharmacological drug candidates, to study human nephrotoxicity and its mechanisms, and reduce animal usage in pre-clinical drug screening.

EpiKidney is the first-of-its-kind renal proximal tubule tissue with the following characteristics:

Epithelial Polarity
Highly Differentiated, Physiologically Relevant
Delivered Ready-to-use & Easy-to-use

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Technology
Applications
Tech Specs

The renal proximal tubular region is the most common site for a compound-specific kidney injury and is responsible for essential kidney functions, including reabsorption of low molecular weight proteins, solutes, and glucose, secretion of acids, and clearance of administered medications. The EpiKidney model is designed to replicate this region of the kidney.

In the advanced cell culture space, the kidney is one of the more underrepresented models due to its complexity from a function, physiology, and structure perspective. At MatTek, we are focused on building highly relevant in vitro organ systems and our EpiKidney model is a 3D lab-grown human tissue model designed to recapitulate the kidney within an easy-to-use in vitro system.

Real-time qPCR analysis confirms that the EpiKidney tissue expresses a panel of PTEC-specific markers that are necessary for renal clearance, secretion, and reabsorption: aminopeptidase CD13, multidrug resistance proteins MRP2/4, CYP450 enzymes, glucose transporters SGLT1/2, multidrug and toxin extrusion transporter MATE1, organic cation and anion transporters OCT1/2, OCTN1/2, and OATP4C1, urate transporter URAT1, and sodium phosphate co-transporter NP2. The model has demonstrated the tissue morphology, barrier properties, gene expression, and tissue performance seen within the in vivo proximal tubular region which enables it to be a highly useful model for kidney research.

Evaluation of kidney-specific marker expression. Immunohistochemical staining of
EpiKidney tissue sections (day 16) (A-C) and kidney explant tissue (cortical region) (D-E); crosssections; imaged with ECHO microscope, 10X. Polarized PT epithelium expressing water channel AQP-1, brush border Villin and GGT1 proteins on the apical side and sodium-potassium ATPase pump on the basolateral side.

We have designed the model to be applicable for a broad range of applications from evaluating renal clearance of drugs (DMPK) to modeling chronic kidney disease (CKD) and evaluating kidney specific toxicity which accounts for 10% of preclinical and clinical stage failures.

Kidney Toxicity

Use EpiKidney to determine relative safety of drug formulations using the MTT and TEER assays and inflammatory responses.

Renal Clearance

Use EpiKidney to evaluate renal clearance of drugs, environmental compounds, and endogenous molecules.

Drug Interaction

EpiKidney mechanisms including tubular secretion and reabsorption allow researchers to study the effects of drug-drug interactions.

Acute Kidney Injury (AKI) and Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD)

With EpiKidney researchers can model disease progression associated with AKI and CKD within an in vitro system.