Direct differentiation of pluripotent cells to ureteric bud kidney progenitor cells

This protocol describes a two-stage process for generation of ureteric bud-like cells from human pluripotent stem cells. In the first stage, mesoderm cells expressing high levels of brachyury are generated by exposure to bone morphogenic protein 4 (BMP4) and basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF). In the second stage, the mesoderm-like cells are exposed to retinoic acid (RA), activin A and bone morphogenic protein 2 (BMP2). In order to test their functionality, the differentiated cells were re-aggregated with dissociated embryonic kidney cells and were shown to incorporate in ureteric bud structures.