Current Perspectives on Role of MSC in Renal Pathophysiology

In the course of the development and worsening of kidney disease, the treatments available are expensive and may cause adverse effects such as immune rejection, inadequate renal resources, or post-operative complications. Therefore, there is an urgent to develop more effective treatments. The advent of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) represents a new direction in this context. The current use of MSCs for the treatment of kidney disease has mostly involved experimental studies on animals and only a few clinical trials have been conducted. This review focused on the mechanisms of MSC involvement from different sources in the improvement of renal pathophysiology in recent years. These mechanisms include homing to damaged kidney tissue, and differentiating into or fusing with the innate cells of the kidney. The paracrine or endocrine action through secreting protective cytokines and/or releasing microvesicle from MSCs also plays a critical role in amelioration of kidney disease. With modern engineering technology like microRNA delivery and a combinational therapy approach such as reduction of renal fibrosis in obstructive nephropathy with MSCs and serelaxin, MSC may make great contribution to the improvement of renal pathophysiology. However, the therapeutic effects of MSC are still controversial and several problems remain unsolved. While it is too early to state that MSCs are useful for the treatment of renal diseases in clinic, it is thought that solutions to the existing problems will enable effective modulation of the biological characteristics of MSCs, thereby providing new and effective approaches for the treatment of renal diseases.