Soft, dynamic hydrogel confinement improves kidney organoid lumen morphology and reduces epithelial–mesenchymal transition in culture

Here, various dynamic hydrogel architectures are created, conferring a controlled and biomimetic environment for organoid encapsulation. How hydrogel stiffness and stress relaxation affect renal phenotype and undesired fibrotic markers are investigated.

The authors observed stiff hydrogel encapsulation led to an absence of certain renal cell types and signs of an epithelial–mesenchymal transition (EMT), whereas encapsulation in soft, stress‐relaxing hydrogels led to all major renal segments, fewer fibrosis or EMT associated proteins, apical proximal tubule polarization, and primary cilia formation, representing a significant improvement over current approaches to culture kidney organoids.