Decellularized Rat Tubules for tissue engineering

Chronic kidney disease (CKD) remains a global health challenge, with tissue engineering strategies like decellularized scaffolds offering potential solutions for functional renal regeneration, yet hindered by the complexity of whole-organ recellularization. This study presents a microscale approach utilizing decellularized rat renal tubules to address these limitations. Renal tubules were microdissected from rat kidneys and decellularized with 0.5% sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS), followed by structural and compositional characterization through immunofluorescence, transmission electron microscopy (TEM), DNA quantification, and collagen IV ELISA. Results demonstrated successful removal of cellular components while preserving tubular basement membranes and extracellular matrix (ECM) architecture. TEM confirmed ultrastructural integrity. This work establishes a reproducible method to generate acellular renal tubule scaffolds with native ECM properties, providing a critical platform for studying cell-ECM interactions, disease modeling, and drug screening, thereby advancing targeted renal tissue engineering applications.