Mesenchymal Stem Cell Therapy in Kidney Diseases: Potential and Challenges

• Published in: Cell Transplantation Vol. 32; p. 9636897231164251
• Main Authors: Chen, Fukun, Chen, NaNa, Xia, Chunjuan, Wang, Hongyue, Shao, Lishi, Zhou, Chen, Wang, Jiaping
• Format: Book Review Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Los Angeles, CA SAGE Publications 01-01-2023; Sage Publications Ltd; SAGE Publishing
• Subjects: Acute Kidney Injury - therapy; Angiogenesis; Apoptosis; Cell differentiation; Cell self-renewal; Cell therapy; Clinical trials; Humans; Immune response; Kidney; Kidney diseases; Kidney transplantation; Mesenchymal Stem Cell Transplantation; Mesenchymal Stem Cells; Morbidity; Oxidative stress; Paracrine signalling; Renal Insufficiency, Chronic; Review; Stem cell transplantation; mesenchymal stem cell; regeneration; kidney diseases; paracrine
• ISSN: 0963-6897; 1555-3892
• DOI: 10.1177/09636897231164251

Kidney disease (KD) is a life-threatening disease characterized by high morbidity and mortality in clinical settings, which can be caused by many reasons, and the incidence increases with age. However, supportive therapy and kidney transplantation still have limitations in alleviating KD progression. Recently, mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) have shown great potential in repairing injury through their multidirectional differentiation and self-renewal ability. Of note, MSCs serve as a safe and effective therapeutic strategy for treating KD in preclinical and clinical trials. Functionally, MSCs ameliorate KD progression by regulating the immune response, renal tubular cell apoptosis, tubular epithelial–mesenchymal transition, oxidative stress, angiogenesis, and so on. In addition, MSCs exhibit remarkable efficacy in both acute kidney injury (AKI) and chronic kidney disease (CKD) through paracrine mechanisms. In this review, we outline the biological characteristics of MSCs, discuss the efficacy and mechanisms of MSCs-based therapy for KD, summarize the completed and ongoing clinical trials, as well as analyze limitations and new strategies, aiming to provide new ideas and approaches for the preclinical experiments and clinical trials of MSCs transplantation for KD.