Adipose Tissue-Derived Stem Cells Reduce Acute and Chronic Kidney Damage in Mice

PLoS One. 2015 Nov 13;10(11):e0142183. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0142183. eCollection 2015.

Abstract

Acute and chronic kidney injuries (AKI and CKI) constitute syndromes responsible for a large part of renal failures, and are today still associated with high mortality rates. Given the lack of more effective therapies, there has been intense focus on the use stem cells for organ protective and regenerative effects. Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) have shown great potential in the treatment of various diseases of immune character, although there is still debate on its mechanism of action. Thus, for a greater understanding of the role of MSCs, we evaluated the effect of adipose tissue-derived stem cells (AdSCs) in an experimental model of nephrotoxicity induced by folic acid (FA) in FVB mice. AdSC-treated animals displayed kidney functional improvement 24h after therapy, represented by reduced serum urea after FA. These data correlated with cell cycle regulation and immune response modulation via reduced chemokine expression and reduced neutrophil infiltrate. Long-term analyses, 4 weeks after FA, indicated that AdSC treatment reduced kidney fibrosis and chronic inflammation. These were demonstrated by reduced interstitial collagen deposition and tissue chemokine and cytokine expression. Thus, we concluded that AdSC treatment played a protective role in the framework of nephrotoxic injury via modulation of inflammation and cell cycle regulation, resulting in reduced kidney damage and functional improvement, inhibiting organ fibrosis and providing long-term immune regulation.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Acute Kidney Injury / blood
  • Acute Kidney Injury / chemically induced
  • Acute Kidney Injury / pathology*
  • Acute Kidney Injury / therapy*
  • Adipose Tissue / cytology*
  • Animals
  • Cells, Cultured
  • Chronic Disease
  • Disease Models, Animal
  • Folic Acid
  • Kidney / pathology*
  • Male
  • Mice
  • Stem Cell Transplantation*
  • Stem Cells / cytology
  • Urea / blood

Substances

  • Urea
  • Folic Acid

Grants and funding

This work was supported by São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP) (http://www.fapesp.br/en/) Grant number: 2012/02270-2 to MB, and National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (http://www.cnpq.br) Grant numbers: 134212/2010-0 and 132730/2010-3 to MB.