A Study on the Protective Effect of Bone Marrow Derived Mesenchymal Stem Cells on Chronic Renal Failure

Chronic renal failure (CRF) is a common disease with high morbidity and mortality. The inadequacy of current treatment modalities and insufficiency of donor organs for cadaveric transplantation have driven a search for improved methods of dealing with renal failure. This raises the concept of cell-based therapy using mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs). The purpose of this work is to evaluate the effect of MSCs in rats with CRF and to detect the level of B-cell lymphoma 2 (Bcl-2) and basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF) as possible antiapoptotic and anti-inflammatory paracrine mediators of MSCs action. This study was carried on female albino rats divided into 3 groups: control group, CRF group, and CRF/MSCs group. The results demonstrated that CRF rats receiving MSCs showed significantly lowered serum urea, creatinine, and urinary albumin levels compared to the CRF group. Improvement of serum Na and K was also observed. Bcl-2 and bFGF were highly expressed in renal tissue of the CRF/MSCs group. These results demonstrate the potential of MSCs to ameliorate kidney function in rats with CRF — possibly through antiapoptotic and anti-inflammatory paracrine mediators.