Abstract
Human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs) have been well known for their ability to generate kidney cell types. We developed a protocol that utilizes a set of growth factors to give rise to kidney progenitors, which when differentiated further in a monolayer gives rise to podocyte precursors, mesangial cells, proximal and distal tubular epithelial cells, and collecting duct cells. This article describes in detail how to obtain each of these segment-specific kidney cell types from hPSCs. Once obtained as a homogenous population, these cells are invaluable for nephrotoxicity testing, for disease modeling, and in tissue engineering approaches such as 3D bioprinting and seeding on acellular matrices and scaffolds.