• Question: Does the kidney need to be in the same temperature as it would in the human body?

    Asked by Ab jab joo to Todd on 10 Mar 2017.
    • Photo: Todd Burton

      Todd Burton answered on 10 Mar 2017:

      Great question! Yes and no. For my cultures i use an incubator at 37°C (body temperature) and 5% CO2 which keeps the pH at the correct level.

      There is a group at Bristol university that cultures their podocytes (the cells that filter the blood) at 33°C to help them grow before changing the temperature at 37°C .

      So i would say at the moment no, not always anyway. Engineering the kidney is still in the very early stages and there is still a lot of work to be done to find out how the cells grow best.

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