Kidney derived micro-scaffolds enable HK-2 cells to develop more in-vivo like properties

Many cell lines, despite the fact that they are easy to culture, tend to lose some of their in vivo characteristics in vitro, we therefore decided to investigate whether culturing HK-2 cells on kidney derived micro-scaffolds (KMS) could improve proximal tubule functionality to these cells. Kidney derived micro-scaffolds (KMS) have been prepared that, due to the fact that they are only 300µm in depth, allow for transfer of gasses and nutrients via diffusion whilst maintaining the kidney's intricate microstructure. Culturing HK-2 on KMS shows significant increase in expression of AQP-1, ATP1B1, SLC23A1 and SLC5A2 after 1, 2 and 3 weeks compared with HK-2 grown under standard tissue culture conditions. Additionally, very high levels of expression of CCL-2 (15–30 fold increase) and LRP-2 (25–200 fold increase) were observed when the HK-2 were grown on KMS compared with HK-2 grown under standard tissue culture conditions. Furthermore, HK-2 cells grown under standard conditions released higher levels of Il-6 and Il-8 compared with primary tubule cells (Asterand AS-9-2) and secreted no MCP-1 or RANTES as opposed to primary cells that released MCP-1 and RANTES following stimulation. However, HK-2 grown on KMS showed both a marked decrease in Il-6/Il-8 secretion in line with the primary cells and secreted MCP-1 as well. These results show that the micro-environment of the KMS assists in restoring in vivo like properties to the HK-2 cells. •Kidney micro-scaffolds (KMSs) were prepared and maintain the kidney architecture.•The dimensions of KMSs allow for cells to obtain nutrients and gasses by diffusion.•HK-2 grown on KMSs organize according to the kidney microstructure.•HK-2 grown on KMSs show up-regulation of kidney specific genes.•MCP-1 release observed.