Mesenchymal stem cells: a future experimental exploration for recession of diabetic nephropathy

The progresses made in stem cell therapy offer an innovative approach and exhibit great potential for the repair of damaged organs and tissues. This study was conducted with a view to find the mechanisms responsible for the effectiveness of bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells (BM-MSCs) in the suppression of diabetes and experimentally-induced diabetic nephropathy.

To realize this objective, diabetic and diabetic nephropathy subject groups that underwent MSC treatment were studied through numerous biochemistry and molecular genetics analyses.

The findings show that, relative to the control groups, the rats in the diabetic and diabetic nephropathy groups treated with stem cells infused with BM-MSCs showed a significant reversal in the levels of their insulin, glucose, heme-oxygenase-1 (HO-1) serum, and advanced glycation end product (AGEP). Moreover, BM-MSC therapy was also found to have a definite positive effect on the kidney functions. In addition, it also corresponded with a significant decrease in the availability of certain growth factors, namely the fibroblast growth factor (FGF), the platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF), and the transforming growth factor-β (TGF-β). BM-MSC treatment also improved the levels of expression of monocyte chemoatractant-1 (MCP-1) and interleukin-8 (IL-8) genes within kidney tissues. Lastly, the treatment recovered the organizational structure of the kidney and pancreas, a result demonstrated by a histopathological analysis. These results greatly coincide with those obtained through the biochemistry and molecular genetics analyses.

Treatment using BM-MSCs is determined to be definitely effective in cases of diabetes and diabetic nephropathy.