Abstract

Kidney disease poses a major and growing global health challenge, with both prevalence and mortality continuing to rise. Current standard-of-care treatments, including dialysis and kidney transplantation, have significant limitations and do not adequately meet clinical needs. This unmet need has driven the development of next-generation regenerative medicine strategies, which can be broadly categorized into 3 areas: (1) approaches that enhance the kidney’s limited intrinsic regenerative capacity; (2) stem cell-based therapies; and (3) implantable bioengineered kidney constructs. This review summarizes recent advances in each of these domains and discusses the major biological, technical, and regulatory challenges that must be addressed to enable successful clinical translation.

• Keywords: Kidney, Regeneration, Cell- and tissue-based therapy, Bioengineering, Regenerative medicine