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 development as well as repair after acute injury. The reprogrammed cells were able to travel to damaged areas of the kidney, successfully integrate themselves and regenerate tissue, improving kidney function and reducing inflammation and fibrosis. Some of the rats were treated with donor stem cells, while others were treated with their own cells. Testing such a procedure in humans is a long way off, but the results of the study are encouraging. Researcher Katherine J. Kelly, M.D. said, “Ultimately, you can imagine taking a part of someone’s kidney, expanding those cells with appropriate growth factors in a tissue culture dish, and then giving the cells back.”
Sources:
Intravenous Kidney Cell Transplant Experiments Raise Hope for Future Human Kidney Failure Treatments, Science Daily, May 31, 2012
Intravenous Renal Cell Transplantation (IRCT) for Rats with Acute and Chronic Renal Failure, American Journal of Physiology, Renal Physiology, May 11, 2012
hi. i was diagnosed to have stage 4 ckd and have to take renal diets. it’s really very frustrating.
since i’m no stage 4 already, i wouldn’t mind if they do this renal stem cell transplants on me. after all, how many years does a ckd patient have?
I agree. Hopefully in the future, there will be more stem cell trials that kidney patients can join.
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