ABSTRACT
The kidney is a mature organ that has a low-proliferative capacity and a very complex structure composed of several types of cells. These characteristics make the regeneration of the kidney extremely challenging (Iwatani and Imai 2010). Various types of stem cells have been examined for their therapeutic potential in kidney repair. These include bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (BM-MSCs), which have been demonstrated to invoke positive effects with regard to repair of the damaged kidney (Krause and Cantley 2005, Morigi et al. 2004). Despite the low engraftment potential (3~20%), BM-MSC treated kidney recovered better than the non-treated group (Kale et al. 2003). This result suggests that BM-MSCs may provide a clement environment for the endogenous cells to recover by providing the necessary cytokines such as vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), hepatocyte growth factor (HGF), and insulin-like growth factor (IGF) (Togel et al. 2005). Likewise, MSC-like cells from both ESC and iPSC will potentially be a powerful resource for kidney regeneration. (Kim and Dressler 2005).
