Evaluation of Inulin and Albumin Permeability at Glomerular Filtration Barrier Constructed by Co-culture of Vascular Endothelial Cells and Podocytes

Abstract

Main function of glomerulus is to filter plasma and waste products from blood. The filtration function is known to be impaired and irreversibly damaged by a disease or a drug administration. Therefore, nephrotoxicity assessment is essential for a new drug development. However, conventional animal models for drug screening cannot appropriately assess toxicity of drugs to human glomerulus. In this study, we constructed a glomerulus-on-a-chip using human podocytes and evaluated the selectivity of inulin and albumin for filtration function.