The nephrons are the key filtering units of the kidneys. The amount of nephrons we’re born with turns out to be a very important number for kidney health. We can’t grow more after birth and those people born with substantially fewer nephrons are at a higher risk of developing blood pressure and kidney problems later … Continue reading Reprogrammed Kidney Cells May One Day Repair Damaged Organs
Japanese Researchers Grow Kidney Tissue from Stem Cells
Researchers from Kyoto University have succeeded in growing human kidney tissue from induced pluripotent stem cells in the lab. The resulting embryological tissue, known as intermediate mesoderm tissue, has the potential to develop into cells of the adrenal and reproductive glands and the kidney. During their experiments, the scientists also grew part of a urinary … Continue reading Japanese Researchers Grow Kidney Tissue from Stem Cells
Clues to How Embryonic Kidney Maintains Stem Cell Pool
Researchers from Washington University School of Medicine, working with a team of scientists in Paris, have identified two proteins, which are key to maintaining the stem cell pool and supporting growth during early kidney development. FGF9 and FGF20 are fibroblast growth factors, a family of proteins involved in embryonic development; the proliferation, migration and differentiation … Continue reading Clues to How Embryonic Kidney Maintains Stem Cell Pool
Kidney Cell Transplants May One Day Be Used to Treat Renal Failure
Researchers from Indiana University School of Medicine have shown that renal stem cell transplants may have the potential to repair damaged kidneys. In the study using rats with acute kidney injury and CKD, the scientists reprogrammed adult kidney cells to express the SAA gene, thus producing the SAA protein, which is essential to early kidney … Continue reading Kidney Cell Transplants May One Day Be Used to Treat Renal Failure
Stem Cell Treatment May Eliminate Need for Rejection Drugs in Transplantation
In an ongoing study, Northwestern Medicine and University of Louisville researchers have shown that it may be possible to eliminate the need for rejection drugs in kidney transplantation. The scientists paired living kidney donors with unrelated recipients with compatible blood type and a negative crossmatch. The kidney patients underwent radiation and chemotherapy treatments to prepare their … Continue reading Stem Cell Treatment May Eliminate Need for Rejection Drugs in Transplantation
Stem Cells Could Boost Kidney Transplant Success
A team of researchers from University of Miami Miller School of Medicine and Xiamen University in China have shown that a combination of mesenchymal stem cell therapy and immune suppressing calcineurin inhibitors (CNIs) produces better short-term transplant outcomes than standard anti-rejection drugs and CNIs. Patients who received a transplant from a living relative were treated … Continue reading Stem Cells Could Boost Kidney Transplant Success